Abstract:
The fish industry is crucial to the world economy. The livelihoods of millions of
people worldwide are dependent on fish farming. Fish provides a rich source of food
nutrient for human consumption. Globally however, evidence indicates that in many
areas aquaculture development which could be a source of employment, its
management is failing. Though it has been geared towards full employment, food
security and social peace, the management of the fishery industry has not achieved
this goal. In order to realize the full potential of aquaculture to the world economy,
there is an urgent need to develop appropriate strategies to promote aquaculture
technologies that will spur production for job creation. The purpose of this study was
to investigate the adoption of entrepreneurial strategies in aquaculture development
towards job creation in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were;
to examine the relationship between adoption of high growth strategies in aquaculture
development and job creation, determine the relationship between adoption of
innovativeness in aquaculture development and job creation and evaluate the
relationship between risk taking propensity in aquaculture development and job
creation. Survey design was employed for the study. The target populations were
1034 fish farmers. Purposive and Multistage simple random sampling techniques
were used in selecting a sample of 310 respondents. Instruments used for data
collection were questionnaires, interviews, observation and document analysis.
Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive (frequency tables and percentages)
and inferential statistics (chi-square). Qualitative data were analyzed using content
and thematic categorization. The results showed that product quality (77.5%) was the
most adopted strategy for high growth. The study further indicated that (65.7%) of the
respondents had adopted new innovation. The study also found out that high growth
(χ2= 0.000, P=0.05), innovativeness (χ2= 0.006, P=0.05) and risk taking (χ2= 0.000,
P=0.05) had significant relationship with job creation. The study concluded that
aquaculture is a source of employment and profitable venture. In addition, despite the
support from the government, fish farmers still faced several management problems
which included fingerlings, affordable fish feed, finance, flooding and predations
among others. The study recommends that there is need for the fish farmers to be
accessed to appropriate technologies, support services and resources. This will enable
them move from a purely subsistence venture to a more commercial one.
