100 Safina M. Musa, Christopher Mulanda Aura and Rodrick Kundu
cost of aquaculture farming and reduce competitiveness. The constraints are
felt more deeply by women as they do not own property that they can use as
collateral to obtain credit from the banks (Lwenya and Abila 2001;
Ndanga et al., 2013).
The survey indicated that males dominated trainings across the AVC,
probably suggesting that the key constraint experienced by women is the
access to information hence they lack confidence to culture fish successfully
(Frocklin et al., 2013; Harper et al., 2013). In African countries, the target of
various training programs is men in the family to receive the information
(Norad, 2014). Unfortunately, according the female respondents, men who
attend the trainings do not freely share that information with other members in
the family. Despite low training and education, women actively participated in
production and grow-out levels in Nyanza region. The results of the current
survey contradicts findings of Ikiara (1999) who indicated that education is a
key-influencing factor determining women roles in the society and lack of
training limited their participation to the peripheral parts of the value chain,
such as fish processing and trading that do not require much knowledge. This
could possibly suggest that the women had gained experience in fish culture
by learning and doing as opposed to class room trainings.
Females dominated the nursing of catfish and ningu at the hatchery level.
Catfish and ningu do not reproduce under captivity hence the need for artificial
propagation. Egg and fry nursing requires close follow-up and attention. The
process also involves patience, which respondents claimed females had and
males did not. Looking after a fish pond/hatchery is perceived by women as an
extension of their responsibility and it is convenient for them since the ponds
are located in the same place as their farm activities (FAO, 2014). Women
could easily integrate aquaculture into the farming system of the farming
families. However, there are changing roles in the fisheries where men have
seized opportunity to enter into fish trade, which was once a female domain.
Thus we find men dominating the tilapia trade, which is more profitable,
pushing women to the less profitable fish species of catfish and other
indigenous fish species like ningu. The fish species reported to be of the
highest economic importance for both men (46%) and women (54%) traders
were Nile tilapia, which could be explained by high aquaculture fish
abundances due to the impetus of Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity
Program (Musa et al., 2012). Consumer preference for Nile tilapia over other
species has also been reported around the Nyanza region (Musa et al., 2014).
Majority of women and men in Nyanza region dealt with fresh fish
products as compared to processed fish; an indication that there is little