Socio-economic and livelihood related issues of crab collectors in Koggala lagoon in Galle Sri Lanka

Abstract

Little attention has been paid to develop crab fishery in Sri Lanka though there is a potential for development of this industry in the coastal belt of the country. The most popular areas for crab fishery in Sri Lanka are Negombo, Chilaw, Batticaloa, Koggala, Tangall, Dikvalla and Trincomalee. This study was carried out in Koggala, Gall district to identify the socio-economic situation of crab growers; to investigate the harvesting, processing and marketing methods; to identify the issues related to livelihood of crab collectors and to make appropriate suggestions to overcome the recognized issues. Primary and secondary data were collected for the study. Almost all the crab collectors who are living around the Koggala lagoon were personally interviewed to collect primary data. Variables related to socio-economics of the crab collectors were collected to analyze the situation. The descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation test were employed to analyze the data. A majority of the crab collectors belonged to middle age category. Their education level was low and did not completely depend on crab fishery as the income source. They found to engage on various activities such as crab collecting, sea fishing and fish selling. Average annual income and income from crab collection were recorded as SLRs 177,960 (US $ 1,618) and SLRs 76,560 (US $ 696), respectively. However, a majority of crab collectors were in middle level wealth condition. Their monthly harvest ranged from 0 to 200kg with an average of 35 kg. All the crab collectors sold their production to regular buyers and to the tourist hotels. Further, crab collectors followed especial postharvest methods and categorize the harvest into three types depending on the size before selling