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Table 7. Number and Percent of Households Involved in Fishing and Aquaculture
N Percent
Fishing Households
10
323 70.7
Aquaculture Households
11
99 21.7
Other 35 7.6
Total Households 457
100.0
In addition, at least one proposed project included in the survey for each village was related to aquaculture. Although there were households beginning to practice
aquaculture during the time of study as part of ongoing rehabilitation projects, some aquaculture existed in the area prior to the tsunami. Therefore, it is useful to
note that at the time of the survey, less than one quarter 22 percent of households in the sample were practicing aquaculture. These numbers include any household
that stated fishing andor aquaculture as a source of food andor income, but does not imply that this is the primary source
12
.
4.2 Occupational Distribution and Level of Development
Residents of the five villages were already involved in a variety of livelihood activities including fishing, aquaculture, farming and raising livestock
Table 8. Over half of the households surveyed listed at least three types of livelihoods that contributed food andor income. Fishing was the most common
livelihood in all of the villages except Village 3 where farming predominates. Trading, for the purposes of this study is defined as selling or re-selling goods
10
Respondent resides in a household that ranked fishing as a source of income andor food.
11
Respondent resides in a household that ranked aquaculture as a source of income andor food.
12
The occupation either fishing or aquaculture could have been ranked at any level of importance to household incomefood.
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Table 8. Percent Occupational Distribution by Village
Activity Village 1
Village 2 Village 3
Village 4 Village 7
Fishing 92.3 58.7
47.5 76.0
86.3 Aquaculture 11.5
28.3 27.9
16.0 23.6 Farming 46.1
47.8 70.5
40.0 15.7
Livestock 42.2 19.6 16.4 8.0 15.6 Trading 19.2
30.5 42.6
22.0 31.4
Tourism 7.6 0.0 6.4 4.0 0.0 Labor 26.8
49.9 37.8
47.0 39.2
Taxi 3.8 2.2
4.8 2.0
4.0 Other 11.4
0.0 0.0
4.0 2.0
is relatively more common in Village 3 than in the other villages. This is expected because it is the center of commercial activity. Twice each week, there is a market
in this village that draws local residents selling produce and merchants from nearby cities Kuraburi and Ranong. In addition, several small shops are open daily in the
area, offering dry goods, prepared meals and electronics. Each village has regular electricity, telephone access via mobile phones and access to media including
newspapers, television and radio. Overall, at the time of the study six months after the tsunami struck, the
villages were functioning better than the researcher anticipated. There was regular access to drinking water during the researcher’s stay in the area. However, results
of the Participatory Rural Appraisal PRA included complaints from residents of Village 1 and 2 concerning availability of water during the dry season, and
residents of Village 3 were concerned with salt intrusion into domestic water sources Pongquan et al. 2005. There were functioning elementary schools located
in four of the five villages. Children from Village 7, where there is no school, can attend school in one of the other villages.
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4.3 Statistical Analysis
