FISH PRODUCTION SKILLS NEED OF SECONDARY SCHOOL GRADUATES FOR SUCCESS IN FISH ENTERPRISE IN IMO STATE

Abstract

The study was carried out to identify fish production skills need of Secondary School graduates for success in fish enterprise in Imo State. A survey research design was used. The population for the study comprised 3000 SS3 students offering Agricultural science in the secondary school in the state, 504 agricultural science teachers in senior secondary schools, 1200 fish farmers that registered with Imo State Agricultural Development  Programme (IMADEP) and 135 extension agents in the three senatorial zones of Imo State. The instruments used for data collection was structured questionnaire. Five research questions were developed and five null hypotheses were formulated for the study. Mean and INI were used to analyze the data for answering research questions while ANOVA was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found out that nineteen production skills were needed by secondary school graduates for success in planning for fish enterprise, twenty production skills were need by secondary school graduates for success in breeding and hatching enterprise, twenty eight production skills were needed by secondary school graduates for success in fish pond management, fourteen production skills were needed by secondary school graduates for success in harvesting of fish and thirty three production skills were needed by secondary school graduates for success in fish preservation. Based on these findings, it was recommended that production skills identified in this study should be integrated into the fish option of agricultural science curriculum for senior secondary schools in Imo State. It was also recommended that teachers of agriculture should be retrained for effective teaching of fish production option of agricultural science curriculum in senior secondary schools.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Fish is any gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animal that lacks limbs with digits. Fish is a cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water. Landan (1992) stated that fish refers to aquatic animals, often with paired fins that obtain at least some of their oxygen via gill throughout their entire life cycle. Ramaliagan (2000) described fish as a cold blooded (Poikilothermic) animal whose limbs are modified to form paired fins used for movement and gills used for respiration. Nelson (2006) said that a typical fish is ectothermic, has a streamlined body for rapid swimming, extracts oxygen from water using gills or uses an accessory breathing organ to breathe atmospheric oxygen. It has two sets of paired fins, usually one or two (rarely three) dorsal fins, an anal fin, and a tail fin, has jaws, has skin that is usually covered with scales, and can lay eggs. Johnson (2005) said that over ninety seven percent of all known fish are oviparous, that is, the eggs develop outside the mother’s body. Examples of oviparous fish include salmon, goldfish, cichlids, tuna, and eels.

Fish makes a vital contribution to the survival and health of people. Mosesl (1993) explained that fish is consumed in a variety of forms especially when it is smoked, dried, fried or steamed. Sorroh (1990) said that fish is a staple food and forms a good source of protein nourishment for individuals.  Fish is soft, easy to cook and more easily digested than meat. Fish is used as complementary foods especially in paste. This paste can be used to enrich the oat meal that is normally consumed by young children in rural communities. Mosesl (1993) explained that those fish that are not readily acceptable for direct consumption are converted into fish mean for the manufacture of animal feeds. Fish according to Albert and Crampton (2005) is a rich source of vitamins, particularly vitamins A and D from fatty species, as well as thiamin, riboflavin and niacin (vitamins B₁, B₂ and B₃). Vitamin A from fish is more readily available to the body than from plant foods. Vitamin A is required for normal vision and for bone growth. Fatty fish contains more vitamin A than lean species. Froese and Daniel (2006) explained that mortality is reduced for children under five with a good vitamin A status.

As sun drying destroys most of the available vitamin A better processing methods are required to preserve this vitamin. Froese and Daniel (2006) added that vitamin D present in fish liver and oils is crucial for bone growth since it is essential for the absorption and metabolism of calcium. Thiamin, niacin and riboflavin are important for energy metabolism. If eaten fresh, fish also contains a little vitamin C which is important for proper healing of wounds, normal health of body tissues and aids in the absorption of iron in the human body. E-pao (2011) said that fishes are source of good quality protein that can easily and completely digest. In addition, according to E-pao, fishes are excellent sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids that appear to have beneficial effects in reducing the risk of cardio vascular diseases and are linked with curing certain types of cancer. Fishes are known to provide several nutritional and therapeutic benefits for health problems like coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and osteoporosis and iron deficiency. The fishes contain many important nutrients that are vital for day to day life. It is one of the richest sources of cheap protein that even poor men can afford. Fish serves as an investment alternative and sources of additional income among individuals who engage in it. For success in fish enterprise, production skills are required.

Skill is the ability to do something well. It may also be described as knowledge that is put into practical use, one that is translated into activity. Okorie (2000) defined skill as anything an individual has learned to do with ease and precision which may be either physical or mental performance, manipulative proficiency in hand, finger and eye coordination. Osinem and Nwoji (2005) also added that skill is a manifestation of acquired knowledge. The authors further explained skill as a well established habit of doing things and that it involves the acquisition of performance capability through repetitive performance of an operation. Acquisition of skills by individuals leads to effective production. Production is the making or creation of something. Production according to Microsoft (2008) is the creation of something. Jhingan (1989) said that production involves the use of factors of production such as land, labour capital and entrepreneur to produce outputs needed to satisfy consumers. The author added that land and capital are non-human factors while labour entrepreneur are human factors involved in the production process. Labour as a factor of production, constitutes the supply of work activities through well developed and organized skills to offer services to any production firm. Johnson (1993) said that labour input normally attracts monetary payment or remuneration as labour is usually measured in man-day or sometimes man-hour. The author further stated that labour involves any productive services provided by human physical effort be it practical activity or mental power. Fish production is the art and science of rearing, keeping or breeding fish for their economic and social values with the help of available resources such as land, labour, capital and management. Fish production involves site selection, pond management, breeding and hatching, harvesting and preservation for the purpose of earning money for a living and producing raw-materials for the industries. For these activities to be carried out effectively there is need for someone to acquire fish production skills.

Fish production skills are intelligent tactics involve in pond management, breeding and hatching, harvesting, preservation and marketing of fish. Jeroen (2003) said that production skills have some components that are considered to be very important in any successful productive business. Akpomi (2008) said that skills provide benefits to society if properly acquired. Denga (2002) noted that with the acquisition of skills, individuals can be engaged in self employment and other useful projects, thus reducing the present high rate of unemployment. For a secondary school graduates to be productive in fish production, they need to posses fish production skills.

Need is a something that is required not just because one would like to have it, but because it is useful or very important. Need is a something required in order to have success or achieve a goal. Colman (2003) defined need as anything required for survival. Odunkwe (2002) explained that the needs of individuals are accurately measured it then encourages productivity. The author further said that the individual in the organization who needs achievement could be placed in a position that would enable him to achieve. This may result in an improved performance because his needs are fitted to the nature of the job. The skills needed by secondary school graduates to perform some tasks in fish production effectively should be identified. Acquisition of these skills by the graduates could lead to proper running of an enterprise. The production activities that take place in fish constitute fish enterprises.

Enterprise is an organized business activities established to achieve a goal or goals. Okorie (2000) viewed enterprise as a job area or occupation with status where individuals work regularly to earn their living through it. Churstenssen (2001) also described enterprise as an organization with partially overlapping objectives working together for some period of time in order to attain the set objectives. The participants in an enterprise utilize management skills, technologies, competencies, innovations, information and other input resources in order to produce goods and services that can satisfy the taste of their customers. In the context of this study, any job within the area of fish production which secondary school graduates in Imo State can engage themselves regularly for income to earn their living is regarded as fish production enterprise. Such enterprises include: pond management, breeding, hatching, harvesting, preservation and marketing. For an individual to earn a living through any of these enterprises, he must be competent in his job. To be competent implies that one is able to manipulate input resources efficiently within that particular enterprise to achieve his production goals.

Secondary school graduates in this study are youths that had completed six years of secondary school under the guidance of the teachers and are waiting for admission for further study or who could not secure admission into higher institutions or get employed in any occupation. The secondary school graduates passed through the agricultural science curriculum under the guidance of the teacher of agriculture while in the school. Agricultural science teachers are individuals trained to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes in agriculture to students of secondary schools. The curriculum could only expose students to the general knowledge and routine practices in fish production. The students therefore may likely graduate without acquiring fish production skills. This is because the curriculum was based on provision of general academic information on the fish rearing rather than equipping them with production skills needed for harnessing human and material resources towards profitable fish production. To be effective in fish production enterprises, the secondary school graduates need to acquire production skills in fish pond management, breeding and hatching, fish preservation and fish marketing enterprises. Acquisition of production skills by these graduates will enable them to participate effectively in fish production. Fish production at present is still in the hand of few farmers who only acquired little or no fish production skills. The extension agents in charge of disseminating latest agricultural information to the farmers only achieved little of their aims. It is therefore necessary to identify and package production skills for educating secondary graduates for their success in fish production.

Statement of the Problem

Fish production as an occupation serves economic purposes for the fish farmers in Imo State. Many farmers engage in fish production jobs. Production of fish serves as a profitable business to the local aged farmers in the State. Observation by the researcher reveals that majority of farmers in the state still adopt the traditional ways in rearing their fish. This could only sustain the production and supply of little fish for the farmers and therefore, could not guarantee adequate supply of fish for the people of the State. There are however, a few commercial fish farmers in the state, but their supply of fish also fall short of meeting the gap created by fish production and supply of the local farmers. In Imo State fish production is left in the hands of aged men and women who lack strength, and modern skills to continue with the fish enterprise in a large scale. As a result, there is reduction in the supply of the products with associated increase in price since demand of fish is higher than supply especially during festivals such as Xmas, New Year, etc. This situation has led to scarcity of fish in the state since many people depend on fish as their major source of animal protein because of its high nutritive value, and cheapness when compared to red meat. The limited quantity available now becomes more expensive and unaffordable by the people of the state leading to poor diets and outbreak of malnutrition deficiency diseases such as anaemia and kwashiorkor among the people.

Furthermore, there are many secondary school graduates in Imo State who may not be employed on graduation or secure admission into higher institutions. These graduates usually migrate to cities in search of non existing white collar jobs and sometimes engage in some criminal acts in the society. In order to put everlasting end to this situations, secondary school graduates could be trained in fish production enterprise. There are many unemployed secondary school graduates in the state who could have found satisfactory employment in fish production. if they possessed the necessary production skills in fish occupations.  If the unemployed school graduates acquire the requisite skills and become employed in fish production they will contribute to increase supply of fish in Imo State. Increased supply of fish will likely lead to increase protein intake by the people of the State. Also empowering the graduates for employment with requisite skills in fish production will ultimately contribute to the improvement of economy of Imo State.  Therefore, there is need to identify production skill needs of secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprise in Imo State.

Purpose of the Study

            The purpose of the study was to identify fish production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprise in Imo State. Specifically the study sought to:

1. determine the production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in planning for fish enterprise.
2. determine the production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in breeding and hatching enterprise.
3. determine the production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in fish pond management.
4. determine the production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in harvesting of fish.
5. determine the production skills needs of secondary school graduates for success in fish preservation.

Significance of the Study

The finding of the study is of immense benefit to secondary school graduates, fish farmers, administrators of skills acquisition centers, government of Imo State, agricultural science teachers, Imo State, society and educational researchers.

The study provided information to the secondary school graduates on production skills they would need for success in fish enterprise. That is, the study provided information to secondary school graduates on production skills needed in pond management, breeding and hatching of fish, harvesting of fish and fish preservation.  The information on fish production skills could be used to train unemployed secondary graduates at skill acquisition centres in the State. This could help to reduce the menace of these unemployed youths and thereby increased the revenue of the State.

The skill acquisition centres and the administrators will benefit from this study as they could easily make use of fish production skills identified by this study for equipping unemployed youths who could not gain admission into higher institutions or secure employment with skills needed for a success in fish enterprise. This will reduce social vices in the society since the trained youths will now engage in fish farming.

The study provided information to the government on the fish production skills needed by secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprises. The government could direct the curriculum planners in the state to package the identified fish production skills into training programmes and be integrated into skill acquisition centers to prepare secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprises. This would enable this group of youths to gain employment into fish industry, become self-reliant and totally abscond themselves from social vices.

The study provided relevant information to agricultural science teachers in Imo and other states on the fish production skills required by secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprises. The agricultural science teachers could make use of identified skills to training their students through the activities of young farmers club. The teachers could also use the information to improve the teaching of practical in fish enterprises if integrated into the syllabus of the secondary schools.

The society will also benefit from the study. As the secondary school graduates and other youths in the society are trained with identified fish production skills in skill acquisition centres, they will graduate and as they engage in fish production there will be enough fishes for consumption by the people in the society. Fish eaten among the people may lead to their good health.

 Research Questions

            The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. What are the production skill needs of secondary school graduates in planning for fish enterprise?
2. What are the production skill needs of secondary school graduates in breeding and hatching of fish?
3. What are the production skill needs of secondary school graduates in fish pond management?
4. What are the production skill needs of secondary school graduates in fish harvesting?
5. What are the production skill needs of secondary school graduates in fish preservation?

Hypotheses

            The following null hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance

H0₁:    There is no significant difference in the mean responses of agricultural science teachers, fish farmers and extension agents on production skills required by secondary school graduates in planning for fish enterprise

H0₂:    There is no significant difference in the mean responses of the agricultural science teachers, fish farmers and extension agents on production skills required in breeding and hatching by secondary school graduates

H0₃:    There is no significant difference in the mean responses of the agricultural science teachers, fish farmers and extension agents required in fish pond management by secondary school graduates

H0₄:    There is no significant difference in the mean responses of the agricultural science teachers, fish farmers and extension agents on production skills required in fish harvesting by secondary school graduates.

H0₅:    There is no significant difference in the mean responses of the agricultural science teachers, fish farmers and extension agents on production skill required in fish preservation by secondary school graduate.

Scope of the Study

            The study was restricted to determination of fish production skill needs of secondary school graduates for success in fish enterprise in Imo State. These include production skills in planning for fish enterprise, breeding and hatching, fish pond management, harvesting and preservation.

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