Value Chain Analysis Of Farmednile Tilapia In Selected Areas, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Recently there was decline in fish volume captured from natural resources including Nile tilapia from Lake Victoria, which eventually created the opportunity for Nile tilapia farmers to venture in covering the gap. The study aimed to analyze the value chain of Farmed Nile tilapia in Coast, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Geita Regions. The regions were purposive selected due to their potential in fish farming and fishing activities of communities in those areas.The overall objective was to characterize and identify areas of improvement in value chain of farmed Nile tilapia in order to upgrade the chain in Tanzania. The specific objectives were: to identify and map various actors currently involved in the value chain and their functions; to analyze marketing margins of the different sub-sectors of the value chain from Nile tilapia farmers to consumers; and to identify the key constraints affecting different actors in the value-chain. Data were analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS) and excel program. Financial data were analyzed by using the formulas for finding margin and profit in each actor. The overall sample size was one hundred and thirteen farmers, thirty seven marketers, eight distributors, forty one restaurants and eight inputs suppliers.Farmers face constrains such asshortage of water for ponds, fish culture inputs too costly/not available locally, low knowledge on fish farming, shortage of feed for ponds, difficult to trade fish at profitable price, small growth rate, shortage of fingerling/fry to stock ponds, shortage of fertilizer for ponds and low security. The study concludes that farmers should be trained on how to produce their own fish feed from locally and easily available ingredients, fish inputs suppliers must be approved by the Government, actors at each level in chain should form groups in order to access loans and farmers should be given financial capital assistance for starting the business to increase their production.