Contributions of fishing to the household income in Mafia District, Tanzania

Fishing sector is responsible for providing critical income for many families within fishing communities. Fishing activities explain the levels of income in which at the end indicate whether a given fishing household is benefiting.This study was undertaken to assess the contribution of fishing to the household income in Mafia District.The data were collected from random sampled 120 household heads using several methods such as questionnaire survey; Focus Group Discussions (FGD), checklist and field observation. These were the main tools used in the collection of socio-economic data. The collected data were analyzed by using inferential statistics, descriptive statistics and Content analysis. Box plot was used to establish the significant relationship between contributions of household income from fishing with other economic activities. On the other hand, Content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data.The result revealed that several economic activities are conducted in the study area, where 41.47% of the respondent indicated that fishing isthe major economic activity in their households. The results further showed that household average incomes received from household conducting fishing alone as the main economic activity was 51 250 TZS,fish related activities was 15 000 TZS and other economic activities was 5000 TZS per day. Since the study has revealed that fishing contributes higher income in household than other activities, therefore the study recommends that most of the households in the study area do not have access to credit for improving their activities especially fishing it is better for the government to provide improved fishing gears for fishers with low interest rate.