Fishing Farmers: Fishing, Livelihood Diversification and Poverty in Rural Laos

Martin, Sarah M.; Lorenzen, Kai; Bunnefeld, Nils

doi:10.1007/s10745-013-9567-y

Cited by 82 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…First, we examined income distribution within fisheries by looking at disparities in standardized fishing incomes across national income groups, job positions, gender, geographical regions and fishing sector. Second, we assessed the opportunity cost of fisheries by comparing fishing income with income from agriculture, another primary sector that fishers may turn to as an alternative income source (Martin, Lorenzen, & Bunnefeld, ; Rahman, Tazim, Dey, Azam, & Islam, ). We extracted gross income from the data series “mean nominal monthly earnings of employees” in the sectors of “Fishing” and “Agriculture, hunting and forestry” from ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization, ) (Agriculture was not available alone as an economic sector).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are fishers poor? Getting to the bottom of marine fisheries income statistics

et al. 2020

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Fishers' economic status is hard to assess because fisheries socio-economic data, including earnings, are often not centrally available, standardized or accessible in a form that allows scaled-up or comparative analyses. The lack of fishing income data impedes sound management and allows biased perceptions about fishers' status to persist. We compile data from intergovernmental and regional data sets, as well as case-studies, on income earned from marine wild-capture fisheries. We explore the level and distribution of fishers' income across fisheries sectors and geographical regions, and highlight challenges in data collection and reporting. We find that fishers generally are not the poorest of the poor based on average fishing income from 89 countries, but income levels vary widely. Fishing income in the large-scale sector is higher than the small-scale sector by about 2.2 times, and in high-income versus low-income countries by almost 9 times. Boat owners and captains earned more than double that of crew and owner-operators, while income from fisheries is greater than that from agricultural work in 63% of countries in this study. Nonetheless, incomes are below national poverty lines in 34% of the countries with data. More detailed fishing income statistics is needed for quantitative scientific research and for supporting socio-economic policies. Key gaps to address include the lack of a centralized database for fisheries income statistics and the coarse resolution at which economic statistics are reported internationally. A first step to close the gap is to integrate socio-economic monitoring and reporting in fisheries management.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are fishers poor? Getting to the bottom of marine fisheries income statistics

et al. 2020

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“…It is an ethnically diverse country and has 42 ethnic groups. The country has a low gross domestic product (GDP) and a quarter of its population lives below the national poverty line (Martin et al., ). Food insecurity is very high in Laos, especially in rural areas and almost every second child under five is chronically malnourished (WFP, ).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These regions include 15 districts and 1,542 villages with a total population of 830,000 people. Agriculture remains the dominant economic sector and contributes to approximately 50% of the total production value of the province (Martin et al., ). As a second sampling unit, we directly sampled villages in the strata.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Does mixed crop‐livestock farming lead to less diversified diets among smallholders? Evidence from Laos

Parvathi

2018

Agricultural Economics

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Malnourishment continues to remain a challenge in developing countries. As the undernourished are largely smallholder farmers, it is widely assumed that farm diversification and mixed crop-livestock agricultural systems can help alleviate this problem. However, empirical evidence in this context is limited. Hence, we use a two-year panel's data from Laos to examine whether farm production diversity as well as a mixed crop-livestock farming system improves household dietary diversity among smallholder farmer. The results from the fixed effects regression indicate that although farm production diversity does lead to a higher dietary diversity, the effect diminishes with continued farm diversification. The counterfactual analysis from the endogenous switching regression reveals that mixed crop-livestock farming systems do not necessarily enhance dietary diversity. However, we further find that purchasing food from the markets plays an important role in enhancing the dietary diversity of rural smallholder farmers.JEL classifications: Q1, Q10, Q18, Q19

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“…There are many drivers for livelihood diversification in the fisheries (Martin, Lorenzen, & Bunnefeld, 2013). Although many of these are not well understood, this research focused on the perceived viability of diversification opportunities, specifically tourism.…”

Section: Tourism Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Tourism As a Potential Development Strategy for an Artisanal Fishing Community in the Philippines: The Case of Barangay Victory in Bolinao

Porter¹,

Orams²

2014

Tourism in Marine Environments

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Development strategies for remote artisanal fishing communities in the less developed world often promote tourism as an alternative livelihood. However, little is known regarding the perspectives of fisherfolk in these communities on tourism as a potential livelihood. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research into fisherfolks' understanding of tourism, how they identify their roles for potential involvement in tourism, and their desire to be "developed." This article reports on a case study of Barangay Victory, a remote fishing-based community in the Bolinao region of the Philippines. Twenty-one faceto-face semistructured interviews were conducted with community members. Methods were grounded within participatory action research and phenomenological inquiry. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Using a deductive approach, data sets were manually coded and a thematic analysis was conducted. Results demonstrate that residents rely heavily upon marine resources but, despite a reported declining fishery, the majority of fisherfolk remain satisfied with fishing as an occupation. Furthermore, although respondents stated a general willingness to engage in tourism development, the understanding of tourism (both the term itself and its potential role as a livelihood) was minimal. Thus, when considering the potential of tourism as a development strategy, though participant responses were positive, the results from this study have been interpreted as a yes that means a no. This lack of understanding of tourism as well as the expressed contentment with fishing as an occupation needs to be carefully considered when development strategies propose a livelihood shift towards tourism.

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Fishing Farmers: Fishing, Livelihood Diversification and Poverty in Rural Laos

Cited by 82 publications

References 43 publications

Are fishers poor? Getting to the bottom of marine fisheries income statistics

Are fishers poor? Getting to the bottom of marine fisheries income statistics

Does mixed crop‐livestock farming lead to less diversified diets among smallholders? Evidence from Laos

Exploring Tourism As a Potential Development Strategy for an Artisanal Fishing Community in the Philippines: The Case of Barangay Victory in Bolinao

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