ACCESSING THE RISKS FACED BY BALUCHISTAN FISHERIES, PAKISTAN BY USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS (AHP) APPROACH

M. Mohsin¹, Y. Hengbin^*2 and L. Hua³

¹College of International Finance and Trade, Zhejiang YueXiu University of Foreign Languages, Shaoxing, 312000, China and ²School of Finance and Trade, Wenzhou Business College, Wenzhou, 325035, China and ³College of Economics and Management, Jiujiang University, Jiangxi 332005, China

^*Corresponding author: 20190251@wzbc.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

Several published studies indicate that the fisheries industry in Pakistan is confronted by diverse types of risks. However, none of these studies neither compares different risk types nor gives priority ranks to risk types faced by Baluchistan fisheries, Pakistan for their effective management. Thus, this study is the first attempt in this regard. In order to gather numerical data, a questionnaire survey was done by contacting fishery experts located in the coastal districts of Baluchistan from 1 September, 2019 to 26 December, 2019. 27 completed questionnaires were collected having a consistency ratio (CR) less than 0.1. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Expert Choice 2000 software was used for data analysis. This work reveals that Baluchistan fisheries is exposed to five different kinds of risks. Relative importance and priority ranking of these risks, from the most to the least important is ‘management risk’ (0.511), ‘natural risk’ (0.256), ‘ecological risk’ (0.124), ‘market risk’ (0.062), and ‘technical risk’ (0.046). Among all the risk sub-factors studied, the most important sub-factor is ‘overfishing’ (0.314), whereas, the least important sub-factor is ‘infectious disease’ (0.003). To cope with these risk types, several strategies can be employed which include avoiding, transferring, diversifying, and controlling risk. However, for more effective and comprehensive management of Baluchistan fisheries, Pakistan further in-depth research on each risk type is strongly recommended.

Keywords: Risk Types, Fisheries, Management, AHP, Baluchistan, Pakistan