A Participatory Assessment of Entrepreneurial Skills among Women in Small-Scale Fisheries

Abstract

Women in small-scale fisheries shoulder the responsibilities of both household and financial management. Further, the realization that fishing alone cannot support the family due to highly fluctuating earnings in marine fisheries has necessitated women to adopt other enterprises. Post harvest activities like fish handling, processing and marketing continue to be traditionally women centric in coastal areas. In most cases, the volume of business is very small and so is the income generated through these. This paper aims at assessing entrepreneurial skills of fisherwomen in managing microenterprises, using a participatory tool viz., ‘H form’ method. A sample of 240 fisherwomen representing 24 self help groups (SHGs) from eight fishing villages in Kollam, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kannur districts in Kerala were selected for this study. The overall entrepreneurship index was 65.22 (±10.15). Out of the 34 parameters assessed for the entrepreneurial skills for managing the micro-enterprises, it could be found that the extent of entrepreneurial skills possessed by them were good with reference to several parameters identified including enthusiasm, economic motivation, planning, time management, organizing, achievement motivation etc. Interventions policy through financial institutions, market support, physical infrastructure, access to information and customized capacity building measures to disseminate desired knowledge would be effective in successful management of microenterprises.