Factors influencing entrepreneurial activities of small-scale fish farmers in deriving income improvement and product sustainability in Central Java, Indonesia

The significant decline of the world fish catch has given aquaculture a promising future. Many countries, including Indonesia, are developing their aquaculture industry. Although the fish farming industry in Indonesia is dominated by small scale fish farmers, it still showed a significant growth in the last decades. Operating a fish farming business is different to other small business or other manufacturing-based businesses because it looks after live species that live in an aquatic environment. Therefore, besides mastering business skills, fish farmers also master technical fish farming skills which include water quality management, feeding management, fish parasite and disease handling. Inadequate fish farming skills can lead to business failure and even business closure. In their attempt to achieve income improvement and ensure product sustainability, small scale fish farmers carry out dedicated activities. The present research focused on entrepreneurial activities of small scale fish farmers that included fish feed production, fish seed production, market extension, fish species extension, product range extansion and utilisation of other fish parts. In carrying out fish farming activities, the fish farmers contend with endogenous and exogenous factors as well as constraints and problems. This research identified the endogenous and exogenous factors as well as constraints and problems that influence fish farmers’ income improvement and product sustainability, identified implemented entrepreneurial activitivies in Central Java, compared entrepreneurial activities between fish farmers with different demographic background and developed recommendations based of the findings of this research. This research collected data through questionnaire distribution to small scale fish farmers in Central Java. The questionnaire was distributed to two different groups of fish farmers: groups of fish farmers that had received awards in the last five years and groups that had not. The data was analysed by using exploratory factor analysis in order to group the variables into meaningful factors. This assisted in the interpretation of results and testing of hypotheses. The reliability of the eight scales was tested by using Cronbach’s Alpha test and Pearson’s correlations. The core analysis of this research used descriptive analysis, logistic regression analysis and chi-square test of association. The findings of this research showed that there was a positive correlation between income improvement and endogenous factors but not with exogenous factors. On the other hand, product sustainability was found to have positive correlation with both endogenous and exogenous factors. Results also indicated that both income improvement and product sustainability correlated positively with constraints and problems. The analyses showed that there is at least one entrepreneurial activity that was carried out by small scale fish farmers in Central Java and that there were significant differences between awardees and non-awardees in Central Java in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Significant differences were also found between gender groups, age groups, marital status, different education level, different fish farmer group level, and different reasons to become fish farmers. Based on the findings of this research, recommendations for the aquaculture and fisheries industry, government, educational institutions and research communities in Indonesia were developed on aspects that may contribute to the success of small scale fish farmers in obtaining their income improvement and product sustainability. It is hoped that the Indonesian federal, provincial and regional governments can include promotion of entrepreneurial activities in the aquaculture development programs and future policies. Also with support from the government, it is expected the small scale fish farmers will proactively implement entrepreneurial activities to increase their income and to implement sustainable aquaculture to ensure product sustainability in their business.