Title: Reducing post-harvest losses of the artisanal Dagaa (Rastrinoebola argentea) fishery in Lake Victoria, Tanzania: a cost and benefit analysis

The Lake Victoria dagaa constitutes over 38% of the total fish landings from Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The fishery supports a major artisanal fishery in the country, ranking second to the Nile perch. However, the dagaa fishery is associated with a high level of post-harvest loss (physical and quality losses) of approximately 59%. The overall objective of this study was to propose a cost effective management strategy to reduce dagaa post-harvest loss in Tanzania. To meet this objective a cost and benefit analysis was done to determine whether adopting drying dagaa on racks will reduce post-harvest loss, and hold positive public value in the future. Two categories of analysis were set, i.e. private (individual) and public (government) for a pilot district (500 fishers). The analyses were divided into five parts: 1) Assessment of all possible dagaa post-harvest losses, 2) Assessment of the cost of reducing the losses, 3) Assessment of the anticipated benefits associated with reducing the losses, 4) Evaluation of costs and benefits to determine net benefit and net present value (NPV), 5) A sensitivity analysis. From the analysis it was found that the drying racks project has positive NPV therefore it is worthwhile to be implemented in Tanzania to reduce dagaa post-harvest loss. Also, the sensitivity analysis indicated that NPV is sensitive and is likely to be affected by changes in sales price, while changes in investment and implementation cost were found to have no impact on NPV. By using drying racks productivity will be increased and provide a sustainable livelihood to fishers and as well as increase regional trade and foreign exchange earnings to the government.