Why Aquaculture Trials Have Not Been Successful in Tanzania? 127competing activities. But aquaculture was the least profitable activity in many
areas (Wetengere, 2010b; Wetengere and Madalla, 2011). Profitable activities
produced products which were not easily perishable, were easy to transport,
and were sold in distant urban markets. For example Wetengere (2010b) found
that beans’ was the most profitable crop in Morogoro and Dar es Salaam
regions because it met the above conditions. The low profitability of
aquaculture was attributed to low yield as most ponds were too small, were
located far from homestead, were poorly managed, fertilisers and feeds were
unavailable or too costly, poor quality fingerlings were used at low stocking
density due to an insufficent supply of fingerlings, irregular harvest, unreliable
markets, animal predation, theft, and loss of aquaculture produce due to high
tides.
Marketability: Money earned from fish farming is significantly
determined by the market situation. Brummett (2000) showed that the ability
to transport fresh product to urban centres where they can be sold for higher
price determines the amount of money an aquaculturist makes. In Zanzibar
farmers that sold their produce in Dar es Salaam earned more than those who
marketed in their village. Farmers indicated that the marketability of fish and
crab was determined by their size and most farmed fish and crab was small in
size and fetched low prices. There is also huge international demand for crab
and sea-cucumber which could be harnessed. A crucial attribute in both local
and export markets is competitiveness. This means competing in cost, quality,
reliability of supply and sometimes volume with the same products of other
countries. It also means being competitive against substitutes.
Risk: Aquaculture was ranked as a most risky activity (Wetengere, 2010b;
Wetengere, 2010c; Wetengere and Madalla, 2011). In Morogoro and Dar es
Salaam regions and RUMAKI districts high risk in aquaculture was attributed
to animal predation, human theft, high probability of ponds being washed by
high tides, death of fish due deterioration of water quality, fingerlings
transport, poor harvesting methods and rotting due to poor preparation and
preservation methods (Wetengere, 2009; Wetengere and Madalla, 2011).
Production of most agriculture crops were less risky compared to production
of aquaculture products.
Immediacy of reward: Aquaculture was ranked last in terms of rewarding
immediately or soon after starting the activity. Fishers indicated that the
harvest of most aquaculture products was usually once a year compared to
fisheries products which were harvested every day. Business and wild capture
fisheries were the activities which rewarded faster followed by coconut