Market women’s skills, constraints, and agency in supplying affordable, safe, and high-quality fish in Ghana

Abstract

In Ghana, the role of female informal traders (“market women”) in making low-cost smoked and dried fish available in urban and rural marketplaces is the key to explaining the high consumption of fish in the country. However, market women’s contribution to food security and nutrition (FSN), as well as to fish quality and safety is underrated and poorly understood. Fish marketing requires proficient distribution and preservation skills, economic and sociocultural competence, and a high degree of mobility. Fish traders face numerous constraints related to fish supplies, credit access, hygiene, storage facilities, transport, and market governance, all of which affect their incomes and may affect the quality and safety of fish. The article, which is based on semi-structured interviews with fish traders and fish consumers in coastal and inland markets in Ghana, documents how traders operate and exhibit agency to deal with constraints by activating a range of skills in their profit-making and their fish quality and safety enhancement strategies. The authors argue that policies grounded in knowledge about fish traders’ activities, skills, and working conditions, with budgets that prioritize investment in public infrastructure that caters for market women’s professional and personal needs, can further enhance their ability to supply affordable, safe, and high-quality fish to Ghana’s population.

Limits to blue economy: challenges to accessing fishing livelihoods in Ghana’s port communities

“…This study demonstrates how the diverse forms of marginalisation impact urban coastal fishing actors’ access to meaningful livelihoods in Ghana. This has potential impacts on food security because fish traders in coastal communities distribute fish products to large metropolitan markets in Ghana and other neighbouring nations (Ayilu & Niawung, 2022 ; Overå et al, 2022 ). In answering the question of how accumulation by dispossession and securitisation shapes urban coastal fishing livelihoods in Ghana, this study makes three contributions.…”

Stakeholder perspectives on the 2023 Ghana National Aquaculture Development Plan: An integration within the ecosystem approach framework

“…The remaining elements under social factors, namely inclusion approach, health and food safety programmes, evaluation and feedback scheme, insurance schemes and contingency and working timeline are unique to this study. Inclusion approach focussing on women integration is widely reported in Ghana's capture fisheries sector (Ameyaw et al, 2020;FAO, 2023;Golo and Erinosho, 2023;Overå et al, 2022), as compared to aquaculture. This suggests the need to create awareness on mainstreaming women into Ghana's aquaculture industry.…”

Assessment of food hygiene and safety knowledge, attitude, and practices of fruit and vegetable vendors in the Ho central market, Ghana

“…Exposure to houseflies and pathogenic insects may have influenced the favorable response toward using insecticides during fruit and vegetable handling. Overå et al [ 41 ] identified the spraying of insecticides to control houseflies and insects by fishmongers in local markets in Ghana. Indeed, the local market settings of low environmental and sanitary standards contribute to the difficulty of maintaining and sustaining food hygiene and safety practices.…”