International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol.3, No.18, 101
-
104
http://ija.sophiapublisher.com
101
Research Report Open Access
Role and Place of Women in Aquaculture a Case Study of Ukerewe District,
Tanzania
Joseph Onyango Luomba
Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute P.O Box 475, Mwanza, Tanzania
Corresponding author email:
luomba@yahoo.com
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol.3, No.18 doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0018
Received: 14 Jun., 2013
Accepted: 17 Jun., 2013
Published: 30 Jun, 2013
Copyright © 2013
Luomba. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Luomba, 2013, Role and Place of Women in Aquaculture a Case Study of Ukerewe District, Tanzania, International Journal of Aquaculture, Vol.3, No.18
101-104 (
doi: 10.5376/ija.2013. 03.0018)
Abstract
The aquaculture sector is often considered a male domain because of the high levels of investments and nature of work.
Women’s role and participation has often been ignored partly due to socio-cultural taboo against them. This paper therefore
highlights that women’s play a critical role in the whole chain from pond construction fingerlings sorting, pond stocking, feeding, sex
identification and fish harvest. Based on empirical information from two fish farming groups in Ukerewe district Lake Victoria, the
paper discusses two issues, first, the potentials women have in aquaculture and secondly, that there challenges they face that need to
be addressed.
Keywords
Aquaculture; Women; Roles and place; Tanzania
Introduction
Aquaculture in Tanzania started as a small scale or
subsistence farming during colonial era in 1949 with
experimental work on the culture of tilapia at
Korogwe in (Tanga Region) and Malya in (Mwanza
Region) during which many ponds were constructed.
However, due to lack of proper management and use
of incorrec t technology coupled w ith phys ic al
problems such as poor infrastructure and drought
these ponds ended up being unproductive (Balarin
1985;
Mbilinyi and Shoko 2002).
According to Bwathondi et al., (1993; 1998); Bwathondi
and Mahika (1997) and Shoko and Matola (2004)
Lake Victoria region has a vast but yet untapped
potential. The industry is dominated by small scale
farmers practicing both extensive and semi-intensive
fish farming. Small fish ponds of an average s ize of
10
m x 15 m (150 m
2
)
are integrated with other
agricultural activities such as gardening and animal
and bird production on small pieces of land.
Within the Lake Victoria region women are involved
in aquaculture-related activities. Even though employment
data in the aquaculture sector is rarely available,
women are known to play a critical part; from
pre-harvest and harvest, to post-harvest processing.
However, the exact contribution both in terms of role,
place and of its nature are often not recognized and
shows a high degree of discrimination against the
women gender. The questions therefore are what are
the potentials, and opportunities for, the participation
of women in the aquaculture sector? What challenges
do women face in their participation? This paper
touches on the above issues through presentation of an
overview of the roles of women in fish farming.
1
Results
1.1
Role of Women in Fish Farming
Regardless of gender roles differences, women play
dominant roles in fish farming. Within the two groups
women make up 80% of the labour force. Women
participate extensively and actively in all phases of
work performed on fish farms. The types of work done
by women are not limited to; construction of pond,
feeding the fish, cleaning of pond environment and
fish harvesting. Other activities the women are
engaged include sorting of fingerlings and pond
stocking. Despite having other family chores, women
in these groups together with male counterparts work
for an average of 18 hours a week.
A general description of aquaculture tasks and gender
division of labour in the aquaculture is presented in
Table 1. This was developed from the information
provided by the fish farmers and from observation at
the pond sites by the investigator.