ABSTRACT

This study sought to evaluate the impact of the IFAD assisted fisheries intervention in coasted communities of Akwa Ibom State. The study identified the personal characteristics of the respondents; assessed the impact of the intervention on the socioeconomic wellbeing of respondents; assessed the level of adequacy of the IFAD intervention; examined the level of perception of the respondent towards the project; examined the level of utilization of the said intervention; and identified major constraints militating against the use of IFAD intervention in the study area. A multistage sampling method was used to select a total of two hundred and eighteen respondents used for the study. Data for the study were obtained from a survey conducted in five coastal fishing communities of Ikot Abasi, Eastern Obolo, Ibeno, Mbo and Oron. Frequency distributions, percentages, one-way ANOVA and t-test analysis were employed in the analyses of the data Results revealed that 68 percent or 148 respondents had high level of utilization of the intervention at utilization index range of 0.501-0.750. The test of hypothesis on socioeconomic characteristics using ANOVA showed that age was significant among the three variables tested. It can be deduced that since age was significant, further analysis revealed that it was the active age of respondents (27- 33) that showed significance. The result showed that influence on wellbeing of beneficiaries does not depend on either sex (male or female) rather the influence on wellbeing of beneficiaries depends on their marital status. Results also indicated that education contributed a high (21.60%) dimension of influence on the socioeconomic wellbeing of beneficiaries The clusters of mean of 2.75 showed that there was inadequate provision of WAD assistance to beneficiaries in the study area. More so, the clusters of mean of349 shows that there was utilization of IFAD fisheries intervention among beneficiaries. Influence on beneficiaries were observed to be nearly equal (low 50.5 percent; high = 49 percent) in terms of assessment of level of adequacy of the intervention. On the contrary, results revealed that most respondents (70.4%) perceived the intervention as being low (0.00- 0.500) in meeting their felt needs. Loss of fishing inputs and poor recovery rate were identified as severe problems militating against the operations of WAD fisheries intervention with 80.8 percent and 59.9 percent respectively. It was recommended that interventions be replicated by government to cover more rural communities so as to enhance the wellbeing of the communities. It was also recommended that further intervention should include insurance and safety packages to cushion the effects of risks associated with fishing enterprise. Government should set up a machinery of experts in agricultural programme measurement and evaluation to ensure proper implementation of agricultural programs.