Abstract:
Considering the erratic and unpredictable seasonal seining in artisanal fishing, several factors
determine their catch level. One and the most important is availability and cost of credit.
Fishermen find solace in contract fishing and modern contract theory of contract has been proven
to be convenient because it can rationalise ex-post contract arrangement by considering cost and
increase output to the fishers. To this test assumption, analysis of the output of current contract
fishers, former contract fishers and those that have not been in contract were examined and
compared. Results show that there significance difference on the output of contract/former
contract fishers, contract/non contract fishers and former contract and non contract fishers.
Contract fishing appears to be a promising institutional arrangement to facilitate fishermen
access to an array of fishing inputs which they are typically excluded and it enhances catch level
of the poor fishers. On determinants of catch level, the positive determinants of contract fishers
were household size, credit, quantity of fuel used per trip and years spent working together by
crew members whereas the only negative determinant was age. Former-contract fishermen catch
level was positively determined by amount of credit and quantity of fuel used per trip while
negative determinants were hours of labour and years spent working together. The positive
determinants of non-contract fishermen's catch level were: education level and amount of credit
while the only negative determinant was year's crew members spent working together. |
