Performance of Fishery Cooperative Societies in Rivers State; Nigeria (Published)
In Nigeria fishery sub-sector accounts for about 40% of animal protein in the diet and contribute 4.4% of the agricultural share of the nation’s GDP in 2003. Nigeria is blessed with a vest expense of inland, fresh water, marine and brackish ecosystem which is richly bless with aquatic life. However Nigeria fish production volume of 0.5 tones cannot meet the annual demand of 1.3 million tonnes. Average annual fish consumption in the country has therefore stagnated a 9.2kg per capita, a situation that resulted in a huge supply and consumption gap. The study, therefore had its trust as appraising the performance of fishery cooperative societies in Rivers State. Data were obtained from 360 cooperative fishermen, from 12 purposively selected Local Government Area of Rivers State. Data obtained were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that, the respondents were of low educational qualification as such affected their initiative to improve the technique in the fish production as well as management of the fishing experience, had significant influence on the fishermen return as fishermen who went for more catch. Also, the findings from the study gave evidence that; there are three major sources used in the fishing exploit deep sea approach, the riverside and the creek. It was observed that more fishermen prefer the creek as fish tend to hide at the creek followed by the riverside approach with few exploiting the deep sea. The findings revealed that fishermen are faced with various degrees of challenges which range from pollution, climate change/bad weather, financial challenge; storage and processing facility; as well as high cost of fishing tools. The Researcher, therefore recommended among others that formal cooperative system of fish producers should be put in place to improve fish production in the areas.
Keywords: Cooperative Societies, Fishery, Nigeria, Rivers State