Investigating the Role of Fish Farming in Sustainable Rural Livelihood of Zahedan County Farmers

Attempts have been focused on developing activities concerning food production, job creation and providing a sustainable source of livelihood for the majority of citizens in resource poor countries. Since the restriction of agriculture as the main risky rural practices impose many challenges to rural residents, rural development can no longer be based only on traditional agricultural activities. However, livelihood diversification can be an alternative to overcome poor living conditions in rural areas. Livelihood diversification through the use of reliable resources can contribute to formulate a survival strategy, maintenance and development. Rural livelihood diversification is referred to the phenomenon through which the rural household unit builds a group of activities and goods looking for better ways of living. Diversification as a livelihood strategy is the process in where rural households engage in multiple activities (either on-farm or off-farm, agricultural or nonagricultural) to survive and to improve their assets (livelihood assets includes natural, physical, human and financial goods, and social capital) and therefore their standard of living. On-farm diversification includes the introduction of new crops into farming systems or farmers investing in livestock, hunting, and fisheries. Fish-farming strategy is classified as one of the supplementary sources of income generation for rural households and especially their poor counterparts. Small-scale fish farming contributes to job creation and promotes rural development. Fish culture is one of the activities contribute to food production worldwide. But the question is whether it provides a sustainable source of livelihood for rural households. In the other words, could policy-makers rely on fish-culture as one of the sources of sustainable livelihood for rural farmers?RESEARCH The present study was carried out to investigate the place of multi-functional agriculture in sustainable rural livelihoods of Zahedan farmers. This was an applied study based on descriptive – causal comparative method. Data collection tools were structured questionnaires. The questionnaire was consisted of four sections. The first section measures farmers’ vulnerability context by assessing the trends, shocks and seasonal conditions of living environment. The second part analysed livelihood assets (physical, financial, human, social and natural assets). The third section examines the institutional processes and the organizational structures which provide the context for fish-farming and necessary support for development of the activity. The fourth part investigates the factors affecting adoption of fish farming including environmental attitudes, the risk-taking propensity, technical knowledge and fish-culture innovation characteristics. The latter part of the questionnaire had been allocated to demographic questions. Validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. For testing reliability, a pilot study was performed and the results confirmed the questionnaire reliability (range of Cronbach's Alpha was between 0.61 to 0.82). Statistical population of this research was consisted of 52 active, 52 passive, and 52 non-adopters of fish farming strategy based on Krejcie and Morgan table of sampling. The 21th version of SPSS and the Excel softwares were used for data analysis. The results indicated the sustainable livelihood of active fish farmers comparing to the other groups. Also, the fish farming provided the better status of five categories of livelihood assets in active fish farmers compared to the other groups of farmers. However, the sustainability status of all groups was assessed to be poor. Nevertheless, the active fish farmers revealed to have suitable place in terms of social (x ̅= 31.58), human capital (x ̅= 35.54), and lower status regarding their material and moral support of public and private organizations. They had higher levels of technical knowledge, environmental attitude, and risk-taking propensity than the other farmers.Analysis of variance results revealed that, fish-farming affect sustainability of social, human and financial livelihood assets of fish-farmers in comparison to the other groups. The fish culture also was proved to serve as a sustainable means of livelihood among fish-farmers. The results of the discriminant analysis of predictors of fish farming adoption among active farmers suggested that fish farming experience had a greater correlation with livelihood assets in the audit function (r=0/96). In the other words, this result utilized to identify the experience variable affecting the level of actively fish-farming. According to standard audit function, age could discriminate among passive fish-farmers and non-adopter group (r=0/92). This research shed light on the positive impacts of fish-farming on livelihoods of Zahedan farmers. Although, there is a long way to go for providing sustainable livelihood for fish farmers. Finally, some suggestions were made to develop fish-farming activities especially among discontinuers and non-adopter groups of farmers. The suggestions included the necessity to support fish farmers morally. In the other words, the importance of providing a context of institutional support which brings technical training to practical experiences besides the capacity building to promote social assets was introduces as necessary inputs to sustainable livelihoods of fish farmers.