LESSENING THE PREVALENCE OF POVERTY THROUGH FISH PRODUCTION IN DUTSINMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF THE KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was conducted in the Dutsinma local Government area of Katsina State on the lessening of the prevalence of poverty through fish production. The primary data used were obtained using structured questionnaires administered to eighty (n = 80) fishermen in the study area. Descriptive statistics, Gini coefficient and profitability analysis were employed to analyze the data. The result showed that 53% of the fishermen were young, 100% were males and 85% were married. Some of the fishermen (52%) had a family size of between 1 and 5. Also 53% had acquired Quranic edification. Results from the study exposed those fishermen use their income to re-invest into fishing activities. The Gini coefficient value of 0.53 indicates that there wereinequalities in the distribution of income. The poverty status of the fishermen showed that 23% and 35% of them were core poor and non-poor respectively. It was also found that fishing was a profitable venture and 100% of the fishermen were faced with inaccessibility to credit facilities. Therefore, it was concluded that the production of fish in this area may lowerthe levels of poverty easily of adopted by re-investment in thissector.