Impact of Fishpond for Socio-Economic and Nutritional Improvement: A Case Study of Kalundwa and Kibwaya Villages-Mkuyuni Division in Morogoro-Tanzania

This study is an assessment of the impact of fishpond for socio-economic and nutritional improvement in Kalundwa and Kibwaya villages in Morogoro-Tanzania. The general objective was to assess the impact of fishpond farming for socio-economic and nutritional improvement to the residents of the village under consideration. The specific objectives were to identify different procedures of raising fish in ponds, to determine the extent to which fishpond can increase farmers income, to determine the extent to which fishpond contribute to the nutritional improvement in the study area, to identify possible constraints that hamper fishpond farming and to assess the perceptions of farmers on the introduction of fishpond farming in the study area. The researcher adopted a case study research design due to the nature to study. Data were collected from 40 fishpond farmers who were purposively sampled using structured questionnaire and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) programme and presented in Tabular form. The study revealed that fishpond farming contribute about 11.69 % of the fishpond farmers income while crop cultivation contribute 50.11 % and 38.20 % is contributed by other economic activities undertaken apart from fishpond farming and crop cultivation. Also the findings indicated that the necessary procedures to be followed in order to start fishpond farming include selection of site for making ponds, dig ponds, fertilize ponds and put fingerlings into the ponds. Furthermore, findings have shown that fishpond farmers do not face any constraints after harvesting rather problems such as water shortage during dry season, feeds shortage during farm preparation and lack of good equipment for making ponds. Finally, recommendations are made to the fishpond farmers to follow all good fishpond farming practices so as to produces fish of large size to enable them fetch good markets, organize themselves to form Microfinance Institutions such as Savings and Credits Co-operative Society (SACCOS) or Village Community Bank (VICOBA) in which they can get soft loans to buy tools for improving fishpond farming activities.