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The Economic Importance and Social Values of Traditional Aquaculture in Rural Sierra Leone



Author(s)

Salieu Kabba Sankoh

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DOI:10.17265/2161-6264/2015.04.007

Institute of Marine Biology and Oceanography, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Mount Aureol, Freetown, Sierra Leone

The economic viability and social value of traditional aquaculture in rural Sierra Leone were evaluated. The hypothesis tested was that traditional methods of farming fish in ponds were not economically viable, so farmers were investing their time/labour in less risky and more profitable livelihoods activities. The assumption in this assessment was that fish farming is an economic activity, and that for farmers to adopt or choose it over other livelihoods, the benefit-cost ratio of fish farming must be higher than that of alternative livelihoods. The main objective of the study was to assess why local farmers failed to adopt modern market oriented aquaculture production systems introduced by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in rural Sierra Leone. Two hundred farmers owning fishponds on family lands were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires and farmers’ responses were analyzed using statistical tools (SPSS 16.0). The mean contributions of different livelihoods to total annual incomes of farmers and the social values they attached to these livelihoods were compared. Results of the study suggested that traditional fish farming was economically viable across the range of pond sizes sampled; but the medium-sized ponds were more profitable than the smallest and largest ponds, and labour accounted for 70% of total annual production costs in the systems assessed. The average benefit-cost ratio of 2.3 for fish farming was favorable compared with that of 0.83 for rice farming, which was ranked as most popular livelihood activity by farmers. The payback period for traditional aquaculture investments was less than five years using informal investment loans (without interest), and was favorably compared with that for tree crops farming, which was also popular among farmers. Additional benefits of fish farming included social capital and maintenance of kinship relationships.

Traditional aquaculture, fishponds, rural livelihoods, economic viability, benefit-cost ratio, payback period.