The contribution of milkfish (Chanos chanos) pond farming to socio-economics and coastal community livelihoods for a sustainable blue economy

Abstract The socio-economics and livelihoods of milkfish (Chanos chanos) pond farming to coastal communities is limited in most countries including Tanzania. This study assessed the milkfish (Chanos chanos) pond farming contribution to the socio-economics and livelihoods along the Tanzanian coastline. Sixty three milkfish farmers were interviewed through semi-structured questionnaire. The results indicated that, milkfish pond farming is characterized by low production due to low farmers’ education. The milkfish pond production is postively influenced by farmers’ experience, the number of fingerlings stocked and pond fertilization. However, milkfish pond farming is significantly negatively affected by pond production period and age of the farmers. Interestingly, our results showed that, milkfish pond farming is a source of income to the farmers after selling their fish through retail, wholesale and on-farm sales via mobile phone communications. However, milkfish pond farming in the studied areas is currently not profitable. Interestingly, milkfish pond farming is a source of food, income and employment to the community. Nevertheless, milkfish pond farming is constrained by inadequate feeds, seeds, funds, technical support and existence of theft and predators. Therefore, addressing these challenges is necessary for enhancing milkfish pond farming contribution to the socio-economics well-being and livelihoods support for the coastal communities.