Publications

Research outputs, reports, policy briefs and knowledge products from KIU scholars and partners.

2023 Faculty of Education EURASIAN EXPERIMENT JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (EEJHSS)

The Role of Aquaculture in improving the Livelihoods of Rural Communities

Olu R. U. S.

Aquaculture contributes to the livelihood of the poor through improved employment and income. Due to itssmallholder operating size, free from high advanced-technology machinery, rural aquaculture is labour intensive.Based on this, villagers who do not have access to land can at least earn a living by providing manpower to otheraquaculture farms. It is believed that aquaculture is one of the fastest ways for the poor to earn a living meanwhile,in that, it serves as a valuable foreign exchange for national development. Aquaculture helps the nation in earningvaluable foreign exchange, increases food production level, and helps in diversifying the economy which results injob creation in the countryside. Small scale aqua farming also assists the remote population to be self-sufficientwithout relying much on imports. Yet, more proportion of these gains goes to the non-poor rather than the poordue to the imbalance in resources allocation in the current stage. Therefore, this paper concludes that there is needfor government policies to implement holistic strategies which include the poor in the aquaculture development aspart of their national development to ensure that entire population of the country would be benefited. Also,institutional and infrastructure aid are urgent in need from the government for diversification of production andtrade, execution of ethical aqua farming techniques and development of backward and forward linkages, withresource-poor household as the main target.