Abstract:
The study examined the economic and socio contribution of the fisheries industry to people’s livelihood in Uganda using Kivindi landing site as a case study. This was done by looking at the effect of fish harvesting, processing and trading
The study was cross sectional in nature and used both quantitative and qualitative
approaches in data collection, and presentation. The study employed purposive sampling technique and collection methods were questionnaires and interview guide. A selected sample of 50 respondents was used to provide information about the study and data analysis was done using SPSS (version and which enabled the formation of frequency tables.
Research findings indicate that 60% of the respondents agreed that fish harvesting had improved their livelihood. 32% strongly agreed on the same statement, 2% of the respondents were not sure while 6% disagreed. The majority of the fishermen agreed that fishing had improved on their livelihoods because they depend majorly on incomes and food from it for their household needs. Research findings also indicate that 54% of the respondents agreed that fish processing had improved on their livelihood, 32% strongly agreed 10% of the respondents disagreed while 4% were not sure, which implies; that fish processing as an activity in the fisheries industry improves on livelihood majorly through income they earn from the activity. Further the findings also showed that 44% of the respondents strongly agreed that fish marketing had improved on their livelihood, 42% agreed, 6% disagreed and 8% were not sure, it implies that fish marketing plays an important role in helping people improve on their livelihood. Generally, research findings indicated that the fisheries industry improve on people's livelihood through incomes from selling fish and fish products as well as food for consumption.
I recommend that there is need to upgrade the fisheries industry, specifically the processing and marketing structures so as to improve the incomes of the people involved. There is also need to improve on the public services in. fishing communities because fishers entirely depend on them like education services. There is also need for the government to encourage fishers to diversify their employment opportunities instead of relying, on the fisheries sector alone especially when fish catches decline.
