If women in the rural sector including small-scale fisheries are to be integrated into the development process, their economic potentials should be exploited to the maximum. Until recently, government programmes for women in the rural sector are more family development-oriented geared mainly towards enhancing the domestic roles of women as wives and mothers (Jomo et. al, 1985). The trend of promoting income-generating activities for women emerged only recently and was sparked off by the realization that women contribute significantly towards the socio-economic welfare of their families and economic development.
Dixon (1978) in her studies on rural women in South Asia proposed a model of female employment which incorporates elements designed to integrate women into the rural development process. The central concern of Dixon's model is the creation of non-agricultural employment for rural women. For maximum impact, the strategy must incorporate the following considerations: it should be located in small town and villages; create jobs outside agriculture in small-scale; labour-intensive light industries; draw women out of their homes into a central work place; organize production cooperatives; and offer additional services and incentives (Dixon, 1978). Another relevant consideration is that before determining which income generating projects are suitable and feasible, it is important to study the production activities in which the women are currently involved. It has been generally observed that, in most cases, these activities are subsistence in nature, and thus should be upgraded to income-earning employment. In view of the dualistic roles of women, it must be remembered that the new income-generating activities should not draw women out of their homes for too long a period so that they can carry on performing their domestic tasks as usual. To further enhance their economic roles women should have at their disposals basic household amenities such as water and electricity supplies and labour-saving household gadgets like washing machine, refridgerator, cooker etc. which could help reduce their domestic chores. Unfortunately, such amenities, whose presence are usually taken for granted by the urban housewives, are generally not available in majority of the fishing households. This means that more effort, time and energy have to be devoted to domestic acticities, leaving the women with less time for income-earning activities outside their homes. This is further compounded by the lack of social amenities such as clinics, schools, postal services, communication, transportation and pre-school play group facilities. Although, however, this is a basic problem common to rural women in general, it is most apparent among women in small isolated fishing communities.
Without loosing sight of the above considerations, four main broad areas in which women in small-scale fisheries can participate actively and earn incomes are identified as follow:
Upgrading their traditional subsistence activities such as fish processing, preservation and fermentation into income-generating production.
Activities in aquaculture (brackish, cage and mussel culture) such as collection of fish fries, prawn seeds etc., stocking of the pond, feeding and poultry-rearing (chicken and duck) by the fishponds.
Promoting home-based labour-intensive cottages industries such as batik making, weaving, silver making, basket making, sewing, local handicrafts (ornaments made from sea-shells, corals etc.) and other agro-based industries such as fruit preservation, copra and coconut-oil making.
Operating holiday accommodation or guest houses for tourists.
By long tradition, the women in small-scale fisheries, particularly on the East Coast have engaged themselves in a wide range of traditional fish-processing activities such as salting, sun-drying, preservation and fermentation to produce commonly consumed products like fish-crackers (kerupuk), fish sauce (budu), shrimp paste (belacan) and shrimp sauce (cencalok), and salted and dried fish, cuttlefish and prawns. It has been estimated that nearly 30 percent of the total marine fish landed in Peninsular Malaysia is processed into these traditional fishery products which provide a cheap source of animal protein to the rural population (Wan Rahimah, 1980). These activities are carried out either at the household level or at numerous small processing units dispersed throughout the fishing villages. The method employed to process the fish are very traditional requiring minimal capital and technical know-how. Owing to this traditional processing technology coupled with poor sanitation of the premises and utensils, and in the absence of quality control, the products are inferior in quality and therefore fetch low prices and limited markets. In view of this, it has been proposed that training in improved processing methods should be extended to a group of selected female fish processors who would in turn could spearhead the dissemination of knowledge and skills to the other women processors (FAO, 1979). The technical support and assistance by relevant government agencies like MARDI, LKIM and the Fisheries Department would be most appropriate to make such training project a reality.
The numerous fish processing activities traditionally undertaken by the women in fishing communities are performed singly or as a family unit but rarely as a cooperative. It is felt that these women would benefit considerably if they are organized into small producers' cooperatives primarily concerned with fish processing and curing. Such cooperative effort offers several economic and social advantages over individual enterprises or as employees of processing factories. Government assistance in the forms of low-interest loans, technical expertise and training should be provided particularly during the initial period. The training should emphasize on simple cooperative principles, book-keeping, saving schemes, improved processing and preservation methods and hygienic sanitation. To facilitate marketing, special retail outlets should be established not only in the village vicinity but also in neighbouring towns and cities.
The concept of organizing women's economic activities into small producers' cooperatives6 can also be extended to other fishery-based cottage industries such as net-making, local handicrafts (ornaments made from sea-shells and corals) and other fishery by-products. These cooperative ventures should not be confined to fishery-based industries but also other small-scale7 or agro-industries such as fruit preservation, copra and coconut oil making etc. The establishment of such home-based production units which are labour-intensive, utilize local materials which are readily available and use intermediate technology offer vast income-earning opportunities to women who were hitherto employed in the subsistence and informal sectors. In this connection, it is envisaged that LKIM, together with the technical assistance and support provided by agencies like MARDI, KEMAS and MARA can play an important role in developing small-scale home-based industries in fishing villages involving women's labour.
In view of recent government's thrust on the development of freshwater and brackish fish farming as alternative and/or supplementary livelihoods to marine fishing, there is a great potential and possible involvement of women in this area. Rural women have been known to be involved in integrated farming activities such as fish farming, vegetable gardening, poultry and animal husbandry as secondary economic activities. While the men attend to the more strenous activities of ploughing the land, digging the ponds, and building the bunds and hedges, the women's role is confined to feeding the animals/fish, stocking and fertilising the ponds, preparing the fish-feed and harvesting. In coastal aquaculture practices like cage and musssel culture, the tasks of preparing fish feeds, feeding, cleaning and general upkeep of the cages and rafts are carried out mainly by women while their fishermen husbands are out fishing. With the recent thrust on small-scale aquaculture as a supplementary or alternative source of livelihood for the artisanal fishermen, the prospect of utilizing women's economic potentials in aquaculture appears bright. This is further reinforced by the recent rapid development of large-scale aquaculture projects (pond, raft, cage, on-bottom culture etc.) which would certainly increase job opportunities for women in this very important economic activity. The main activities commonly associated with large participation of women are: stocking of ponds; stock correction and growth check; maintenance activities (weeding of ponds, clearing of bunds, cleaning nets and cages, protection against predators etc.); collection of fingerlings and fish fries; fertilization of ponds; feeding; harvesting; handling and transport of fish from ponds, cages, rafts etc. to storage tanks (Yap, 1979).
Since these activities are not very time-consuming and do not draw women too far away from homes, their normal household duties will not be affected. There is also a possibility of practising integrated farming such as rearing of poultry and fish and growing of cash crops along the bunds. For example, integration of fishand ducks/pigs has been successfully practised by the Chinese pond farmers in this country. Therefore, both aquaculture and integrated farming appear to offer great scope for increased women's economic involvement in the future.
The possibility of women's participation in income-generating tourism-related activities in fishing villages is yet another area where their economic potentials can be utilized. With the increase in tourist arrivals to beach and off-shore island resorts, tourism accommodation and facilities should be improved and added. Currently, there is a shortage of cheap accommodation facilities (chalets, longhouses etc.) for tourists in these beach and island resorts. As mentioned earlier, a few fishing households on the East Coast have taken the initiative to operate cheap lodging/guest houses for tourists on a small-scale basis. It is understood that such facilities are most popular among the foreign tourists with limited budget but who wish to stay in a particular place for longer periods. Beside providing cheap accommodation, staying in such guest houses would enable the tourists to experience a typical kampung or village life. It is understood that these guest houses are becoming increasingly popular among the low-budget foreign tourists.
Women's participation in tourism-related activities such as operating holiday accommodation for tourists is the least dislocating in the sense that it does not require them to be away from their homes. The daily management of the guest houses like tidying, cleaning and cooking can be carried out as extensions of the women's routined housekeeping chores. Nevertheless, it is generally felt that women's involvement in tourism-related industries should also be expanded to other income-generating activities like retailing of local handicrafts, operating small restaurants and organizing recreational activities and cultural shows for a fee. It is realized, however, that the women may not have the necessary skills and experience to undertake such activities. In view of this, therefore, government agencies like MARA, LKIM, TDC, KARYANEKA etc. can play important roles to initiate and support small tourism-related projects for the coastal communities in general and the fishing community in specific. The important areas in which these agencies can provide their inputs are loans and credit (MARA, Bank Pembangunan Malaysia, Credit Guaranteed Corporation etc.); training and extension (Perbadanan Kemajuan Kraftangan, KEMAS, TDC); marketing (KARYANEKA); and technical support facilities and manpower (TDC, LKIM etc.).
To sum up, the four main livelihood sources where women's potential can be optimally utilized are: (1) fisheries-related activities especially in seafood processing industries; (2) integrated fish-cum-livestock rearing and animal husbandry; (3) small-scale coastal aquaculture practices such as prawn, cage and mussel cultures; and (4) small home-based cottage industries manufacturing local handicrafts. There need to be conscious programmes on the part of the government to spearhead and support income-generating projects for women in the small-scale fisheries sector. Unless the government comes forward to subsidize the initial investment costs, such income-generating projects will not be economically viable.
