COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF PURSE SEINE AND DRIFT GILL TECHNOLOGIES AMONG ARTISANAL MARINE FISHERS IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT This study compares the performance of two predominantly employed marine fishing technologies (purse seine and drift gill net) along the coastal stretch of central region in Ghana. Against this backdrop, productivity and technical efficiency differentials of the purse seine and drift gill net technologies is assessed. Factors delimitating fishers from achieving the maximum attainable output levels were also modeled to quantify their effect on inefficiency. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select a total of one hundred and fifty respondents from five fishing communities (Komenda, Elmina, Moree, Apam and Winneba). With the help of structured questionnaire, a cross-sectional data was obtained through personal interviews, key informant interviews and observations. The study employed the stochastic meta-frontier model to estimate and compare the productivity and technical efficiency levels whilst the maximum likelihood estimation procedure was adopted for the determinants of technical efficiency among the fishers. The result of productivity analysis revealed that labour, premix fuel and cost of other inputs were highly productive and increased output of purse seine owners as well as the drift gill net owners. Furthermore, inputs such as labour, premix fuel and fishing duration were found to be key inputs in the artisanal fishing industry in the central region. Fishers employing drift gill net technology exhibited increasing returns to scale whilst their counterpart purse seiners and that of the pooled system exhibited decreasing returns to scale. Mean meta-frontier efficiency values of 0.63, 0.61 and 0.58 were recorded under the purse seine and drift gill technologies as well as the pooled system respectively. Estimated TGR scores (0.78, 0.74 and 0.76 for purse seine, drift gill technologies and that of the pooled system) indicate that purse seiners in the central region of Ghana are closer to the meta-frontier than drift gill net owners. Factors such as gender, marital status, business experience, other occupation and alternative finance sources were found to increase inefficiency while age, formal education and depth of fishing ground had negative effects on inefficiency hence increasing the efficiency of artisanal fishers in the central region. The study concludes that meta-frontier and translog models were the appropriate models and best fit the data set. Labour, premix fuel and fishing duration were very productive inputs except cost of other inputs which negatively influence productivity. Owners of drift gill net should increase their scale of production whereas purse seiners should strive hard to stay competitive by reducing the levels of some inputs. It is therefore established that purse seine technology is more technically efficient than the drift gill technology. Following the finding from the study, it is recommended that government, NGOs, and other development partners in the fisheries industry should develop strategic policy interventions (education and training, credit schemes, input subsidies, among others) to support artisanal fisheries industry to boost their efficient and increase productivity level.