Sustainable Livelihood and Market Chain Analysis of Giant Freshwater Prawn Culture-Based Systems in Two Selected Reservoirs in Puttalam District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, which identifies capital assets in five specific forms, including: (1) Human; (2) Social; (3) Physical: (4) Natural, and (5) Financial was applied to investigate the effects of production and marketing of giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) from two reservoirs (Mahauswewa and Siyambalankatttuwa) in the Puttalam district in Sri Lanka on the livelihood of adjacent culture-based fishing (CBF) communities. Eighty different market actors selected through stratified random sampling techniques were subjected to a face-to-face interview with the help of a pre-tested structured questionnaire to collect primary information. The Livelihood Pentagons derived for each community suggest that, overall, the highest percentage (95.2%) is acquired by social capital followed by those of natural (74.5%); human (64.4%); physical (64.3%) and financial (58.2%). It was found that the potential of freshwater prawn markets to uplift rural livelihoods is not utilized commendably, because there are lack of information and poor coordination between and amongst the actors in market chains starting from fishermen to collectors and also with those traders involved in international/local markets.