Abstract
This study investigated the effect of disease burden on catch efficiency among small-scale fisher folks' households. A total of 120 fisher folks households were sampled through a multi-stage random sampling procedure. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cost of illness analysis (COI) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). The most prevalent household illness was malaria. The average COI among the fisher folks' households was Naira 60,320.1 per year, out of which 30.4% and 12% were the time cost of illness of both the sick person and the caretaker respectively. The Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) revealed that number of hooks (p<0.1), labour (p<0.01), number of canoes (p<0.05), number of fishing line (p<0.01), and number of fishing net (p<0.05) significantly increased catch level. Catch inefficiency associated with the SFA significantly increased with number of illness episodes (p<0.1), number of days lost by fisher folks due to illness (p<0.05) and household size of the fisher folks (p<0.10). The mean catch efficiency was 0.77 which indicated that an average household could increase their income by 23% if their burden of illness were relieved. The study concluded that fisher folks' households incurred high cost due to illness which has negative impact on catch efficiency. It is therefore recommended among others, that health care services in the fishing communities be improved so as to reduce cost and number of days lost to illness.
