Study of barriers and strategies for development of ornamental fish industry in Iran “case study of Markazi Province”

Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and the natural aquatic environment, made Iran’s geo-strategic and socio-economic situation of the fisheries and aquaculture sector unique. This sector in the three areas of “ecotourism”, “food production” and “social behavior” play a crucial role in achieving Iran's Vision Policy of 1404 goals. However, Iran's valuable position in ornamental fish farming industry has been less attention and several issues challenged its development trend. Markazi is one of the leading provinces in this industry. So the main purposes of research were to identify current situation and providing development strategies. This study was descriptive and data were collected by survey method. The Statistical population was ornamental fish’s Producers and experts in Markazi province which due to limit number, census sampling was applied. The main tool for gathering information was questionnaire which its face validity confirmed through educational specialist and expert’s viewpoint. Also, the reliability of research tool was evaluated by Coronbach Alfa Test. The results showed that "Employment and income" and "Interest in breeding ornamental fish" were two main reasons to attract practitioners to this industry. The respondents considered the current situation ornamental fish industry, undesirable (Score 1.17 out of 5). Factor analysis showed that five factors named; "Corporate management and food resources", "management of extension and informing about authentic breeding principles", "Care Management and Insurance", "imported fish quality management" and "technical and financial support" have explained about 80% of the variance of the current situation and barriers to the development of ornamental fish industry in Markazi Province. The most important strategies to reduce facing problem in mentioned industry were development priority belonged ornamental fish industry trade system and development of specialized human resources training.