Poverty alleviation among fishermen within the floodplains of Kaduna River: implication for introducing commercial fish farming at village level in Doko local government area of Niger State, Nigeria

A diagnostic survey was conducted among the fishermen in six selected villages in Doko Local Government Area of Niger State. One hundred and fifty fishermen were randomly selected and interviewed to find out whether or not they had interest in commercial fish farming aimed at improving their livelihood. The dwindling fish catches in the natural flood plain ponds and Ex-bow Lakes continue to have a serious negative effect on the socio-economic well being of the village communities in question. A break on natural regular annual flooding of the plains had resulted into very low natural fish recruitment. Data analysis using simple descriptive statistics revealed that land tenure system, educational status, inadequate infrastructural facilities, religious taboos, existing fish species among others were found to be favourable indices for commercial fish farming. However, serious conflicts among the fishermen concerning the ownership status of these natural fish ponds are found to be major obstacles to commercial fish farming despite that the traditional ownership of the ponds were vested in the lands of individuals and village communities. Extensive fish farming and small-scale fish farming in the ponds and Ex-bow Lake with improved management practices are considered to be profitable venture. Despite the fact that fish seeds supply and extension effort are still inadequate, the fish farmers have indicated willingness to adopt commercial fish farming in the Ex-bow Lakes and flood plains in order to restore abundant fish production thereby providing for their food security and also increasing the daily income