CHAPTER II
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS

2.1 The Project Objectives

The Project is located at the estuary of Sungai Merbok in the district of Kuala Muda in Kedah (see Fig. 2). It therefore has the advantage of being sheltered from the strong wind and waves. It is easily accessible from major towns like sungai Petani, Alor Star and Butterworth. Moreover, since it is situated near Tanjung Dawai, a major fish landing centre, the Project is assured of regular supplies of trash fish for its cage culture operations. In terms of space, the Project occupies a relatively small area of about 5 acres. This however does not include the area (about 7 ha.) in which the participants had been resettled.

The long-term broad objective of the Project is to engage small-scale traditional fishermen in either part-time or full-time cage culture operations so as to improve their productivity and incomes.

More specifically, the Project sets out to achieve the following objectives:

1. To provide alternative income-generating activities to the fishing community, the fishermen-participants, through improved productivity and income;

   FIGURE 2

   MAP OF SUNGAI MERBOK FLOATING CAGE CULTURE PROJECT LOCATION

   

   FIGURE 3

   SUNGAI MERBOK FLOATING CAGE CULTURE PROJECT

   

2. To accelerate transfer of technology in cage culture operations to the participants and their families;

3. To encourage the participants to expand their own cage culture operations and

4. To promote skill and technical know-how among the participants.

The main components of the Project are as follows:

1. net cage culture operations i.e. rearing marine finfishes like grouper, sea-bass and mangrove snapper;

2. fishermen's resettlement whereby the selected fishermen and their families are regrouped into a new area where facilities, management and technical expertise can be more easily provided; and

3. construction and provision of basic amenities such as roads, drainage, electricity and piped water.

2.2 Implementation Schedule

The Project was implemented in several phases over a period of three years (1981–84). The first phase involving a group of 10 fishermen families as launched in March 1981 as shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3

LAUNCHING DATES OF THE TG. DAWAI RESETTLEMENT PROJECT

Subsequently, nine more phases were implemented involving another 90 families with the intake of the last batch of fishermen and their families in November 1984. These fishermen were selected from among the 459 fishermen households found in the Kuala Muda district.

As mentioned earlier, the project was implemented along the lines of the family unit concept. The emphasis here is on the use of the readily available family labour for managing the cage culture operations, hence providing them with not only supplementary source of income but also new employment opportunities. Under the project, each family is provided with 12 cages, each cage measuring 5' × 5' × 6'. The main species reared are grouper and sea-bass. It was envisaged that the Project could generate an average monthly gross income of about $400 per family.

2.3 Organization and Management

The responsibility of managing the Project rests with a Project Manager whose main administrative responsibilities include coordinating all project activities to ensure smooth implementation; resolving any management and implementation problems; monitoring and evaluating the progress of implementation actions and project effects and benefits; and reporting on the progress of the Project to LKIM's head office. The Project Manager is assisted by 2 Supervisors, 2 Clerical Officers and 5 Labourers. As the name implies, the Supervisors are directly responsible for the overall supervision of the Project activities such as procurring supplies of fish seeds, feeds and other materials (nets, floats, cages etc.), distributing these supplies and materials as required by participants, marketing the fish on participants' behalf as well as providing technical advice and assistance to participants on cage culture husbandry and techniques.

At the participants level, some kind of management structure also exists, albeit on a less formal basis. As mentioned earlier, the participants are organized into groups of ten.

Each group would elect its own Group Leader who serve both as the “spokesman” for the group as well as the “chanelling agent” for the project management. In a way, the Group Leaders provide informal but important links between the Project management and the participants. It is hoped that through such informal linkages, constant dialogues and discussions between project management and participants could be held for purposes of improving overall implementation of the project so as to achieve the desired results. It is envisage that within a period of 10 years, the management support services provided by LKIM would be gradually phased out. In its place, the Group Leaders would organize their own management committee which would be responsible for the overall coordination and supervision of the Project.

2.4 Share System

One important aspect of the project operation which needs highlighting here is the system of sharing profits. The choice of profit sharing system to be adopted rests on two basic principles, first, to maximise returns/income to the participants; and secondly, to sustain continuous operations of the Project. The system of profit sharing currently practised will be explained in subsequent section.

2.5 Socio-Economic Characteristics of Participants

2.5.1 Ethnic Composition

The Survey respondents were the participants who invariably were also the heads of households. Of the 100 participants interviewed, 91 were Malays and 9 Chinese. Table 4 shows the ethnic breakdown of the participants' households as compared to that of the total fishing households found in Kuala Muda i.e. the district in which the project is located. It is clear from the table that the predominant group was Malays.

TABLE 4

ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF PARTICIPANTS' HOUSEHOLDS

(%)

Source : Preliminary data from the Fisheries Census, 1982.

2.5.2 Household Size

As Table 5 indicates, the average size of participant households was 5.9 persons. This was slightly smaller than the national fishing household average of 6.2 persons per household. ⁵ The median household size was 6 persons, with about 18% of the households having 6–8 members each. Another 40% of the participants households had 5–8 persons per household. It is noted that the percentages of households having less than 3 persons and more 9 persons per households were relatively small.

TABLE 5

HOUSEHOLD SIZE OF PARTICIPANTS

⁵ Advanced Tabulations, Census of Agriculture, Department of Statistics, Kuala Lumpur, 1976.

2.5.3 Age Structure

Table 6 indicates that more than half of the total participants were between the ages of 40 – 49 years. This was quite comparable with figures from the 1977 Census of Agriculture which showed that about 57.0 of fishing households in Peninsular Malaysia belonged to the 30 – 49 years age category.

TABLE 6

AGE STRUCTURE OF PARTICIPANTS

It is also noted that nearly one-third of the total participants were 50 years old and beyond. The relatively large percentage of old participants should be noted since it could have an influence on their performance and productivity of the cage culture operations. The average age of participants was estimated to be 44.9 years, and the median 38 years.

2.5.4 Educational Attainment

Educational attainment, to a certain extent, accounts for the socio-economic status and earning capacity of participants. From Table 7, the low educational status of the participants is very evident. About 16% had nor formal education and the remaining 84% had only a primary education, and even then of only 2–3 years in the Malay schools. This means that a fair percentage of the participants could neither read nor write any language. They would therefore have had little or no exposure to newspapers or other written media. None of the participants had secondary education.

TABLE 7

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF PARTICIPANTS

2.5.5 Employment Status

The employment status of participants in the cage culture operations is indicated in Table 8. Only about 22% of the participants were engaged full-time in cage culture activities, while the remaining 78% were part-time operators. The fact that only 22% participated as full-time operators was somewhat disappointing since, when the project was conceptualized, the cage culture operation was meant as an alternative full-time employment for fishermen participating in the project.

TABLE 8

EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF PARTICIPANTS IN CAGE CULTURE OPERATIONS

* Full-time operators here refer to those participants who derived more than three-quarter of their income from cage culture operations.

As indicated in Table 9, of the anti-time operators, more than three-quarter were fishermen while the remaining were engaged in an assortment of varied economic activities such as own businesses, retailing, government services etc. and as hired labourers.

TABLE 9

EMPLOYMENT OF PART-TIME OPERATORS BY OCCUPATION

An important aspect related to the employment status is the experience of the participants in cage culture operations. Table 10 indicates that nearly two-third of the participants had less than 1 year of experience in cage culture, while only 6.1% had more than 3 years of experience. The experience of participants in cage culture operations is noted since it could influence the skill and hence productivity of the participants.

TABLE 10

PARTICIPANTS' EXPERIENCE IN CAGE CULTURE

2.5.6 Monthly Gross Household Income

One indicator of the socio-economic status of the participants is the monthly gross household income. Table 11 provides a broad picture of income amongst participants. One note of precaution, though, the table should be interpreted cautiously as there are bound to be overestimation of underestimation of income reported by the respondents. Bearing this qualification in mind, it appears that the modal income range for the participants was between $300 – $500 a month. The average monthly income of about $420 certainly meant that the participants were well above the poverty-line income. It also meant that the participants did not fall within the bottom forty per cent of households in this country where mean income was only $138 per month. ⁶ To a limited extent, the high level of household income among some of the participants was perhaps due to the supplementary income from the cage culture operations. Another reason was the larger number of working members per household contributing to the household income.

TABLE 11

MONTHLY GROSS HOUSEHOLD INCOME

⁶ Review of the Third Malaysia Plan 1976–80, Government Printers, Kuala Lumpur.

2.5.7 Assets and Savings

An examination of the savings and asset ownership pattern of the participants revealed that more than half had no savings nor any tangible assets hence reflecting their low stock value. Nevertheless Table 12 indicate that about 40% of the participants had invested in shares, particularly in Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) and MARA. But the values of their stock was generally low, ranging between $50 – $100 only.

TABLE 12

ASSETS OWNERSHIP AND SAVINGS

Another indicator of the socio-economic status of the participants was the facilities and opportunities found in and around the scheme. The participants were asked for their opinions on the standard of these facilities. It can be noted from Table 13 that while the participants generally consider the facilities adequate, they were not very satisfied with certain facilities like drainage and piped water supply to their houses.

TABLE 13

OPINIONS ON FACILITIES/OPPORTUNITIES