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Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations

Received: 9 May 2017     Accepted: 19 May 2017     Published: 6 July 2017
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Abstract

This study ponders on the significance of gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members on capacity of farmer organisations in promoting fish farming at the local level. Purposive sampling method was employed to select five fish farmer organizations. One farmer organisation was selected in Dowa district while four farmer organisations were selected in Mchinji district. All members of the farmer organizations were selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Data collection comprised focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews and face to face interviews. Data were analysed using content analysis, critical discourse analysis and descriptive statistics. Results show that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members have a significant (p < 0.05) influence on capacity of farmer organisations to promote fish farming. The study also showed that although institutional theory and social capital theory do not categorically or explicitly point to socioeconomic characteristics of the members as being central in enhancing capacity of the farmer organisations, this study has shown that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members are critical for the successful performance of fish farmer organisations. It is therefore recommended that these socioeconomic factors be considered for successful establishment and development of vibrant and robust farmer organisations. It is further recommended that a follow-up study with a larger sample and replicated in more local communities should be carried out in order to provide more evidence on the influence of these socioeconomic factors on performance and capacity of fish farmer organisations.

Published in International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management (Volume 2, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12
Page(s) 79-84
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Socioeconomic Characteristics, Farmer Organisations, Participation, Capacity of Farmer Organisations

References
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[2] Russell A. J. M and Dobson, T. (2009). An adaptive organisational learning framework for resilience in fisheries co-management: Based on analysis of fisheries regimes in Malawi.
[3] Russell, A. J. M., Grötz, P. A., Kriesemer, S. K. and Pemsl, D. E. (2008). Recommendation Domains for Pond Aquaculture. Country Case Study: Development and Status of Freshwater Aquaculture in Malawi. WorldFish Center Studies and Reviews No. 1869. The WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia.
[4] Hara, M. (2007). Dilemmas of Democratic Decentralization in Mangochi District, Malawi: Interest and Mistrust in Fisheries Management. Representation, Equity & Environment. Working Paper Series. Working Paper 28.
[5] Government of Malawi. (2012). Impact and output indicators for Agriculture, Food Security, Nutrition, Natural resources and Fisheries/Aquaculture projects/programmes in Malawi. A tool to harmonise the monitoring and evaluation system of the Agriculture, Food Security, Nutrition, Natural resources and Fisheries/Aquaculture projects/programmes in Malawi.
[6] Government of Malawi (2001). National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs. Department of Fisheries. Lilongwe. Malawi.
[7] Bernard, T. and Spielman, D. (2008). Mobilising Rural Institutions for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Development: A case study of Agricultural Marketing Smallholder Cooperatives in Ethiopia. Washington, D. C., USA: International Food Policy Research Institute’.
[8] Lobo, C. (2008). Institutional and organizational analysis for pro-poor change: meeting IFAD’s millennium challenge. A source book. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty. Rome, Italy.
[9] Stringfellow, R., Coulter, J., Lucey, T., Mckone, C., &Hussain, A. (1997). Improving the Access of Smallholder to Agricultural Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Farmer cooperation and the Role of Donor Community. Natural Resources Perspective 20 ODI. London.
[10] Halfyard, L. C., Matiya, G., Ward, R., Chilera, F. D. Sikawa, D and Moret, K. (2005). An educational perspective of the constraints to women participation in the aquaculture and fisheries sectors of Malawi.
[11] Penunia, E. A. (2011). The Role of Farmers’ Organisations in Empowering and Promoting the Leadership of Rural Women. Accra, Ghana.
[12] Dorward, A., Chirwa, E., Boughton, D., Crawford, E., Jayne, T., Slater, R., Kelly, V. and Tsoka, M. (2008). Towards ‘smart’ subsidies in agriculture? Lessons from recent experience in Malawi. Overseas Development Institute (ODA), Natural Resource Perspectives 116. United Kingdom.
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[16] Garrity, D., Akinnifesi, F., Ajayi, O., Sileshi G. Jeremias, G. Mowo, A., Kalinganire, A., Larwanou, M. and Bayala, J. Evergreen Agriculture: a robust approach to sustainable foodsecurity in Africa. Food Sec. (2010) 2: 197–214. DOI 10.1007/s12571-010-0070-7.
[17] IFAD, (2009). Sustainability of rural development projects. Best practices and lessons learned. Enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty. Occasional papers. Knowledge for development effectiveness. The eighth in a series of discussion papers produced by the Asia and the Pacific Division.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Dalo Njera, Charity Chonde, Daimon Kambewa, Joseph Dzanja, Dennis Kayambazinthu. (2017). Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations. International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, 2(4), 79-84. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12

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    ACS Style

    Dalo Njera; Charity Chonde; Daimon Kambewa; Joseph Dzanja; Dennis Kayambazinthu. Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations. Int. J. Nat. Resour. Ecol. Manag. 2017, 2(4), 79-84. doi: 10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12

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    AMA Style

    Dalo Njera, Charity Chonde, Daimon Kambewa, Joseph Dzanja, Dennis Kayambazinthu. Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations. Int J Nat Resour Ecol Manag. 2017;2(4):79-84. doi: 10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12,
      author = {Dalo Njera and Charity Chonde and Daimon Kambewa and Joseph Dzanja and Dennis Kayambazinthu},
      title = {Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations},
      journal = {International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management},
      volume = {2},
      number = {4},
      pages = {79-84},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijnrem.20170204.12},
      abstract = {This study ponders on the significance of gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members on capacity of farmer organisations in promoting fish farming at the local level. Purposive sampling method was employed to select five fish farmer organizations. One farmer organisation was selected in Dowa district while four farmer organisations were selected in Mchinji district. All members of the farmer organizations were selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Data collection comprised focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews and face to face interviews. Data were analysed using content analysis, critical discourse analysis and descriptive statistics. Results show that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members have a significant (p < 0.05) influence on capacity of farmer organisations to promote fish farming. The study also showed that although institutional theory and social capital theory do not categorically or explicitly point to socioeconomic characteristics of the members as being central in enhancing capacity of the farmer organisations, this study has shown that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members are critical for the successful performance of fish farmer organisations. It is therefore recommended that these socioeconomic factors be considered for successful establishment and development of vibrant and robust farmer organisations. It is further recommended that a follow-up study with a larger sample and replicated in more local communities should be carried out in order to provide more evidence on the influence of these socioeconomic factors on performance and capacity of fish farmer organisations.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Examining the Significance of Gender, Marital Status, Landholding Size and Age of Members on Capacity of Local Level Fish Farmer Organisations
    AU  - Dalo Njera
    AU  - Charity Chonde
    AU  - Daimon Kambewa
    AU  - Joseph Dzanja
    AU  - Dennis Kayambazinthu
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12
    T2  - International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management
    JF  - International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management
    JO  - International Journal of Natural Resource Ecology and Management
    SP  - 79
    EP  - 84
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-3061
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijnrem.20170204.12
    AB  - This study ponders on the significance of gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members on capacity of farmer organisations in promoting fish farming at the local level. Purposive sampling method was employed to select five fish farmer organizations. One farmer organisation was selected in Dowa district while four farmer organisations were selected in Mchinji district. All members of the farmer organizations were selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Data collection comprised focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews and face to face interviews. Data were analysed using content analysis, critical discourse analysis and descriptive statistics. Results show that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members have a significant (p < 0.05) influence on capacity of farmer organisations to promote fish farming. The study also showed that although institutional theory and social capital theory do not categorically or explicitly point to socioeconomic characteristics of the members as being central in enhancing capacity of the farmer organisations, this study has shown that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members are critical for the successful performance of fish farmer organisations. It is therefore recommended that these socioeconomic factors be considered for successful establishment and development of vibrant and robust farmer organisations. It is further recommended that a follow-up study with a larger sample and replicated in more local communities should be carried out in order to provide more evidence on the influence of these socioeconomic factors on performance and capacity of fish farmer organisations.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Forestry, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Mzuzu University, Mzuzu City, Malawi

  • Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Developmental Studies, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lilongwe City, Malawi

  • Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Developmental Studies, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lilongwe City, Malawi

  • Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Developmental Studies, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Lilongwe City, Malawi

  • Forestry Research Institution of Malawi, Zomba City, Malawi

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