Title: Productive performance of the Lake Victoria fishing fleet in Uganda: Technical efficiency and fishers’ perspective

Successful exploitation of biological resources, like fisheries, depends on monitoring and evaluation of stock size and active management to stop overexploitation. This can be difficult due to limited information available to resource managers to make management decisions, particularly in developing countries with weak institutions and limited resources. In this study, the performance of the fishing fleet of the Lake Victoria fisheries in Uganda is determined and used as an indicator of stock health and development. The analysis in the study is two-fold based on technical efficiency change of the fishing fleet and also fishers’ perceptions of the production environment. The fishing fleet is categorized into six vessel groups distinguished as motorized or paddled using three gear categories; gill nets and long lines for the Lates niloticus (Nile perch) fishery, and small seine nets for the Rastrineobola argentea (dagaa/mukene/omena) fishery. In determining technical efficiency, the study employs the stochastic frontier approach for eight-year unbalanced panel data and assessment of fishers’ responses during interviews analyzed in IBM-SPSS. Results indicated that maximum output in the fishery was obtained by motorized vessels, with the highest rate of technical progress (94%) for the motorized dagaa fishery. In terms of technical efficiency change, a general decrease in technical efficiency was observed for all vessel groups for the period 2005 to 2015. This was coupled with declining returns to scale as vessel inputs employed for the same time period resulted to declining catches. Declines were higher for the Nile perch long line and gillnet vessel groups than in the dagaa vessel groups. Labour hours in the dagaa fishery indicated congestion while more labour hours were required for maximising catches in the motorized Nile perch vessels. Fishers also perceived catches of Nile perch to be poorer than catches in the dagaa fishery thus more likely to affect the performance of the Nile perch vessel groups than the dagaa vessels.

Therefore, effort restricting policy measures for all fishery inputs should be integrated into the fishery management objectives, and the capacity for grassroots fisheries management developed.