Coping vulnerabiblity : assess the strategies with special reference to idiosyncratic shocks in the small-scale fishery in southern Sri Lanka SRI LANKA

Abstract

Vulnerability leads to poverty; poverty leads to vulnerability, a controversial two concepts without an end nor a start. From recent past, poverty has been addressed in terms of vulnerability. There, the possible ways to be vulnerable is stressed to investigate. Risks, shocks, and uncertainty have been identified as the profound sources of vulnerability so as to poverty. In fact, the study was designed to assess the coping mechanisms of vulnerability that are adapting to hammer the idiosyncratic risks and shocks in the small-scale fishing community in Southern Sri Lanka.

Stratified random technique was applied to draw a sample of three groups representing, NMRT owners, FRP owners, and crew members. Totally 50 households were selected. Both panel data and a cross sectional survey was carried out to glean the data.

The results highlight a clear variation of fishing income between season and off-season for the whole three groups. The FRP owners’, main cash inflows are fishing income, drawings, gifts, bank loans, and co-operatives irrespective of the season. Zero income, harsh sea condition, and inability to secure operational expenses knock their livelihoods frequently. Individuals are adapting memberships in formal organizations, accumulation of wealth, activity diversification, migration, and social networks as ex-ante risk coping strategies. Loans from friends, mortgage, withdrawals from banks, and intra- community transfers are the ex-post risk coping strategies. The safety net arrangements are vital to ensure the mutual insurance among the small–scale fishers. The importance of a high heterogeneity within a network is elaborated by the income- expenditure, and saving patterns of the groups.