A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS OF SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF
AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA.
Recently there was decline in fish volume captured from natural resources including Nile
tilapia from Lake Victoria, which eventually created the opportunity for Nile tilapia
farmers to venture in covering the gap. The study aimed to analyze the value chain of
Farmed Nile tilapia in Coast, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Geita Regions. The regions
were purposive selected due to their potential in fish farming and fishing activities of
communities in those areas.The overall objective was to characterize and identify areas of
improvement in value chain of farmed Nile tilapia in order to upgrade the chain in
Tanzania. The specific objectives were: to identify and map various actors currently
involved in the value chain and their functions; to analyze marketing margins of the
different sub-sectors of the value chain from Nile tilapia farmers to consumers; and to
identify the key constraints affecting different actors in the value-chain. Data were
analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS) and excel program.
Financial data were analyzed by using the formulas for finding margin and profit in each
actor. The overall sample size was one hundred and thirteen farmers, thirty seven
marketers, eight distributors, forty one restaurants and eight inputs suppliers.Farmers face
constrains such asshortage of water for ponds, fish culture inputs too costly/not available
locally, low knowledge on fish farming, shortage of feed for ponds, difficult to trade fish
at profitable price, small growth rate, shortage of fingerling/fry to stock ponds, shortage of
fertilizer for ponds and low security. The study concludes that farmers should be trained
on how to produce their own fish feed from locally and easily available ingredients, fish
inputs suppliers must be approved by the Government, actors at each level in chain should
form groups in order to access loans and farmers should be given financial capital
assistance for starting the business to increase their production.