ARTISANAL FISHERIES VALUE CHAIN ACTORS’ PARTICIPATION IN POLICY FORMULATION AMONG FISHER-FOLKS ALONG OGUN RIVER BASIN, OGUN STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

Artisanal fish value chain constitutes the major business activities in the fishing communities along Ogun River,
Nigeria. This study profiled the socioeconomic characteristics of, and involvement in policy formulation and
enforcement by fisherfolks along Ogun River Basin. A multi-stage multistage sampling procedure was adopted
for selecting 151 value chain actors from three value chain strata: fishers (86), marketers (36) and processors
(29) respectively. The highest proportion of fishers (34.9 %), fish marketers (30.6 %) and fish processors (37.9
%) were in the age brackets of 41-50, 41-60, and 31-40 years respectively. Mean ages of fishers, fish marketers
and fish processors were 44.41, 48.22 and 39.55 years respectively. The highest proportion of fishers (22.1 %)
and marketers (55.6 %) were Yoruba while 100.0 % of processors were Egun. There were significant associations
between presence of fisheries policies (χ2 = 120.071), participation in policy enforcement (χ2 = 70.114),
sufficiency of existing rules and regulations (χ2 = 32.47), extent of obedience to existing policies (χ2 = 32.243).
From the study, it was found that three fisheries value-chain fisherfolks (fishers, fish processors and fish
marketers) individually and collectively played significant roles in fisheries value-chain development. There is
need to improve fisherfolks’ participation in fisheries policy formulation and implementation, access to rural
credit, storage facilities, subsidized costs of fishing equipment, closed area/season, stocking/recruitment of fish
species. Value-chain fisherfolks should be encouraged to organize themselves into cooperative societies to