Socio-economic study of rice-fish farming in the region of upper Sassandra (Côte d'Ivoire)

This study aims to assess the socio-economic impact of rice-fish farming in the Haut Sassandra region. To this end, a survey was conducted in five villages in the sub-prefecture of Bédiala between April and July 2020 using a questionnaire. The method of collecting data and other information consisted of direct interviews with the leaders of the Bédiala fish farmers’ association (DEHIZEA), producers and fishmongers. The information thus obtained was supplemented by direct observations in the field. On the basis of the data collected on rice-fish farmers from DEHIZEA officials, 60 (or 30 %) rice-fish farms were selected out of 202 farms with effective fish farming activity in the areas concerned. The selection was made jointly with DEHIZEA officials using the simple random sampling method. The XLStat 2016 program was used to process the quantitative data. The results show that 63.3 % of rice-fish farmers are farmers and have been practicing the activity for more than 5 years. The sale of fish is the main activity of 80% of fishmongers. In 86.7 % of cases, rice bran constitutes the food distributed to the fish. The fish production of 40% of the rice-fish farmers is between 0.5 and 1.5 tonnes. Concerning rice production, 43% of rice-fish farmers produce between 500 and 1200 kg and 31% produce between 500 and 900 kg. On the other hand, all the rice-farmers have a production of less than 6 tonnes/year. They sell this production between 500 and 1000 CFA francs/kg, which gives an annual income of less than 5 million CFA francs. Ninety-seven percent of the producers are satisfied with the financial contribution of the system.Keywords: Rice-fish culture, Socio-economic, Upper Sassandra, Côte d’Ivoir