Economic and livelihood condition of fresh water fishing community: a special reference to Aalayadivembu Divisional Secretariat area

Abstract

In order to achieve the main objective of investigating the economic and livelihood status of the fishermen who are doing fresh water fishing at Aalayadivembu divisional secretariat area, this study was conducted to: find out the economic condition; find out the livelihood condition; identify the factors that affect their fishing activity; and put forward the recommendations for their economic progress as a sub-objective. The total population (160) was selected as the sampling of the research in order to achieve the objective and primary data collected through the distribution of questionnaires among fishermen. The economic and livelihood conditions were identified by a descriptive model and the factors that affected the fishing were analyzed by a multiple linear regression model. Here Income was used as a dependent variable, and monthly consumption, monthly saving, distance from market, climate, and technology were used as independent variables. The data was analyzed using the SPSS statistical data package and MS Excel. This research found that fishermen haven’t achieved any positive level in their economic and livelihood conditions yet. Moreover, Monthly saving, monthly consumption, distance from market, and climate all had a significant impact on fishing activity, but modern technology had no effect. So, this result demonstrates that, by increasing the contribution of modern technology, it can have a positive impact on the income level of fishermen.