Judul: Correlating mariculture and household income generation: a case of panggang island initiative
Abstrak: Aquaculture has an important role in reducing poverty and ensuring food security, particularly within coastal areas. Kepulauan Seribu is a part of the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta, but it experiences severe losses due to pollution and environmental degradation. In fact, Kepulauan Seribu not only has the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) but also the highest poverty rate, compared to other areas in Jakarta. In order to improve the local community's welfare while conserve marine ecosystem, the local government and Center for Coastal and Marine Resources Studies (CCMRS-IPB) initiated a project called sea farming in Panggang Island, Kepulauan Seribu. Sea farming is a mariculture-based project to create sustainable marine resource management. This study has two main objectives that include the following: (1) to identify which factors determine household participation in the project activities; and (2) to describe the project contribution to poverty alleviation by analyzing its impacts on household income generation as well as describing benefits and constraints of the project subjectively felt by community members particularly the participants. To address the research objectives, a survey of project participants (as the treatment group) and non-participants (as the control group) in the community was carried out. Two different sampling techniques were employed to select both groups. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to select the treatment group, while convenience sampling technique was employed to select the control group. Quantitative data on household incomeand other socioeconomic characteristics were evaluated using statistical techniques to identify the determinants of sea farming participation and the impacts of the project to household income generation. In addition, survey responses to open-ended questions were analyzed to describe benefits and constraints of the project subjectively felt by community members particularly for the participants. The determinants of sea farming participation were analyzed using probit model. The model shows that education, occupation, household size, and organization member are significant factors in influencing household decision to participate in the project. It also shows that all significant factors are reducing the probability of one person to participate in the project which is different from the initial hypothesis. This results indicates that the project is more attractive for those whom are less educated, have primary occupation not as a fisherman, have less household members, and less involvement in non-sea farming organization. It implies that the project manager and local government should socialize the objectives and positive impacts of the project effectively to attract the fishermen as the main beneficiaries. The impacts of sea farming to household income generation were analyzed using OLS regression. The model shows that sea farming participation, age, organization member, and mobile phone ownership are variables that have significant relationship to the total income. Almost all significant variables are positively related to total income except age. Sea farming participation gives the highest contribution to total income. It increased the total income by Rp14.6 million per period, ceteris paribus, at 1 percent significance level. The model indicates that the project successfully increase household income. It also shows networking is another important aspect for local community to increase their income. It implies that project manager
Keyword: sea farming, mariculture, poverty, Panggang Island