122 Kitojo Wetengere and Aubrey Harris
(Wetengere and Madalla, 2011), paying farmers allowances to attend training
and paying for food when farmers were doing some project activities was not
needed. However important the provision of these inputs for free was, it was
not sustainable. Such assistance could not be asked for crops like maize,
beans, rice and cassava simply because their cultivation was a “live or die”
matter to the farmers. By doing things that farmers could do themselves,
projects ruined the sense of local community ownership and created a
‘dependence syndrome’ jeopardising sustainability of the project. Most
farmers did not see the project as their own property but of the promoter (i.e.,
the projects/government). This happened when the projects substituted rather
than complemented farmers efforts. In many instances, direct funding by the
projects was the main motivation for group members to participate rather than
enthusiasm for benefits accruing from successful aquaculture. This largely
explains why most donor projects were unsustainable. It should be emphasized
here that although external assistance may be necessary to improve farmers’
resources (cash), organization knowledge and technical skills, care should be
taken not to erode the farmers’ spirit of self-help.
For a project to become sustainable, the introduction process should be to
build upon the ‘farmer’s self-help spirit.’ The best way to sustain projects is to
ensure that the farmers are fully involved in all stages of the project. This leads
to ownership of the project design, results in active participation in the
implementation and management by the local people, and helps to ensure that
local priorities are addressed. The project/government initiative has to ensure
that it complements rather than substitutes farmers’ efforts. Finally, the
project/government initiative should not provide inputs for free as it has been
shown that it is unsustainable.
The Reasons for Undertaking Aquaculture Trials
Literature shows that farmers adopted aquaculture technology in order to
obtain fish for home consumption as well as for sale to improve their income
(FAO, 1996; Edwards et al., 1997; Wetengere et al., 1998 and Wetengere,
2010). Wetengere and Madalla (2011) indicate that most farmers along the
coastal areas adopted aquaculture in order to generate income, and this was
also the situation seen in Zanzibar in April 2015. Several studies have shown
that only few farmers achieved their primary reason for undertaking
aquaculture that is to generate considerable income and eat fish frequently and
at a time when other relishes were in short supply. This was due to reasons