Assessment of Potentials and Determinants of Small Holder Commercialization of Fish in South West and West Shoa of Ethiopia

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Assessment of potential and determinants of smallholder fish farmers’

in South West and West showa zones of Oromia

Background and justifications

Aquaculture constitutes an important part of rural development, s serving as source of food

supply and income for farm households .It is also the fastest growing form of food production

and plays vital role in helping to meet the increasing demand for aquatic products

worldwide there by contributing to food security and the growth of national GDP (FAO,

2011). Due to the general perception of aquaculture as low productivity and backward sector,

it has been rarely considered as a possible entry point in poverty reduction and rural

development planning.

The basic rationale of introducing aquaculture in developing countries like Ethiopia is to

improve smallholders’ livelihood and nutrition status of the farming community. Despite the

existence of enormous potential for aquaculture development in the Ethiopia, aquaculture as

an agricultural sector could not significantly contribute to country’s economy. Since fish is

good source of protein for the family, it can alleviate protein deficiency and enables healthy

growth in children and fosters better health and less disease in the family. Smallholder

farmers in the study area have both land and water throughout the year which is very basic

and common in fish farming enterprise. However, it suffers some constraints such as

limitations in accessibility of full technology package and farm inputs such as formulated fish

feed.

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Existing aquaculture technologies that has been adapted and disseminated by National

fisheries and aquatic life research center includes improved fish strains, formulated fish feed,

improved fishing gear and fish culture techniques such as cage culture and poly culture.

Some of the technologies like fish feed and fishing gear are not fully accessible to fish

farmers’. It is therefore essential that fish farming ponds at farmers backyard need to be

assessed for their production history, present status and potentials. Thus the focus of this

study is to generate information on the status of the small holder fish farming in the area and

to investigate constraints and opportunities available to this newly introduced agribusiness.

The information will be used to promote market oriented fish farming system, enable

smallholder farmers to access markets and adopt more productive and sustainable fish

farming practices.

Materials and Methods

Study Area

The assessment study was carried out in South West and West Showa of Oromia region. South

West Showa includes Wonchi woreda, around Woliso and Bantu towns, Becho, Dawo & Tole

Woredas. The area lies (N08031.790'-N08049.335'); (E 037056.881-E038024.135') and the

mean elevation of 2210 m (high altitude rainfall regime) with mean temprature 20 0C. West

Showa includes Ilu Gelan (Ijaji), Chelia (Gedo) and Tibbe (Bako). The area is also lies

(N08058.376'-N09009.496'); (E037002.245-' E037025.366') and the mean elvation of 1172m

(mid altitude rainfall regime) with the mean temprature of 28 oC. Basically farmers in this area

are crop and livestock producers, crop production contributes majority of the household

income source.

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Sampling procedures

A purposive sampling procedure was used to select two zones in Oromia region where pond-

based fish farming is predominantly introduced and practiced. Depending on the availability

fish farmers, two zones of the region were surveyed in which a total of 34 households were

selected purposively.

Data collection methods

A household survey was conducted and heads of the households were the main respondents.

Face to face interviews of the selected farmers were conducted using structured

questionnaires and information from personal observation was also recorded. The

questionnaire was designed to gather information on household’ characteristics, pond size,

fish and pond management practices. Also, the fish ponds of fish farmers were observed

visually and the physical conditions and water quality were judged by the relevant

researchers.

Data analysis

Data analysis was conducted with the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-16)

computer programs, used to generate descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and

frequency.

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Household characteristics of the respondents

Most of the household heads were male (94.3%) and the rest (5.7%) were female headed

Most fish ponds were owned by male headed households 94.3%, few females who own fish

ponds are widowed or divorced. Average age in the area was found to be 29.5 years and

average household family size was found 6.46. Out of the total number fish farmers, 76.5%

had at least one pond and 23.5% own two to five ponds with mean size of pond 121m 2 which

is found at their backyard. According to FAO (2012), most small-scale farmers own small

ponds of an average size of 150 m 2. Ponds were stocked with O. niloticus in 2008/9, where

fingerling was obtained from NFALRC as this was the institute who introduced Home yard

aquaculture these areas. Some farmers who started fish farming lately reported that their

fingerling sources were the early engaged farmers at affordable price. Up to 50% of the

farmers depended on diverted river water and other 50% use subsurface spring water which is

accessible throughout the year.

Table 1: Characteristics of pond fish farming

Variable Factor n Percentage/mean

Pond size (m2) 34 121

Number of harvest 34 1.14

Distance to the nearest

extension service/km 34 4.97

Species cultured Tilapia/ 34 100

O.niloticus

Water sources River 18 52.9

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Stream 16 47.1

Water availability All year round 28 82.4

Seasonal 6 17.6

Use of fish Sold Fingerling 7 20.6

Household

consumption 27 79.4

Sources of feed Mill dust & Food 28 82.4

left-over

Wheat bran 6 17.6

Type of pond Earthen 34 100

Fish feed

As indicated in Table 1, most of the respondents use mill dust (82.4%) due to availability and

low cost. In contrast, protein rich formulated feeds from various agro industrial by products

such as such as fish meal, oil cakes, soybean, wheat bran and brewery west were not used as

these are not accessible and farmers cannot afford. Consequently, fish growth in the ponds is

inferior and low in quality.

According to (Bahnasawy et al., 2003) the amount of feed recommended is usually 5 – 10%

of the body weight of the cultured fish However, fish farmers do not know the total no. of

fish and the stocked average fish weight as they cannot weigh them. As a result the fish were

not fed as per recommended optimum quantity for semi intensive farming system. And do not

feed according to body weights, but provide feeds based on rough estimates of the feed

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required. The rest 17.6% of the respondents had used wheat bran to feed the fish where the

cost of wheat bran was not affordable by all farmers as reported by the respondents.

According to Yemi and Deji (2012), growth of the fish farming sector continues to be limited

by weak input and output markets and limited access to technologies and knowledge. In the

present study, in addition to the cost of feed, lack of awareness has been encountered as a

problem. The gap of extension service by community development agents has been a

challenging problem in the aquaculture sector. Lack of relevant expertise and private

investment in the sector add up to the constraints to the development of the aquaculture sector

in Ethiopia.

Table 2: Respondents’ perception on fish farming business

Variable Factor Percentage

In case of failure, expectation of support from Yes 42.9

Government and NGOs No 57.1

Rely on other relatives in case for help Yes 54.3

No 45.7

Traders that fish farmers trust more Wholesalers 2.9

Retailers 25.7

None 71.4

Living conditions as compared to the past three years Much less 8.6

Less 2.8

Better 74.3

Much better 14.3

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Respondents in the study area thought that fish farming cannot be a profitable business so

that it will no longer be sources of income for the household. Table.2 describes farmers’ over

all perception on fish farming as agribusiness practice. More than half of the respondents’

believed that government and other nongovernmental organizations would provide support to

reduce the risk in cases of any failure in fish farming business. However, some farmers have

tried their best w to self sustain the business. Regardless of how they benefit from the fish

farming practices, i.e is it for household consumption or as sources of income, about 74.3%

of the respondents reported that their life has improved since they adopted fish farming

business as compared to the past three years.

Table 3: Major constraints in fish farming

Constraints (%)

Net harvest 33.3

Feed cost 23.3

Shortage of water during dry season 20.0

Lack of follow up & expertise support 10.0

Lack of awareness on production and marketing 6.7

record keeping

Lack of developed techniques to avoid natural feed 6.7

predators

The above summarized constraints were reported by the respondents as to have hindered the

development of the sector. Although a few farmers can afford equipments and inputs for fish

farming business, there are apparently no dedicated suppliers to the sector. .

Gender and aquaculture


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It is known that family members’ participation is valuable and brings tremendous change in

fish farming. In particular, women’s participation in aquaculture has significant positive

impacts on productivity of the business itself and improvement of households’ nutrition and

overall living standards. Women and children in the study area were actively involved and

their contribution was valuable (in aquaculture or in any agricultural practices) to the

development of the sector. Since all fish ponds were located at the farmers’ backyard, women

and children took the burden of the pond management as well as feeding the fish.

However, their effort has not been well recognized and the contribution was not clearly

quantified. The result revealed that 94.3% of the male respondents participate in aquaculture

and related trainings and workshops alone. Women have never been in a trainings and

workshops even though the trainings are directly relevant to their day to day experiences.

Regardless of their participation women took the responsibility to feed the fish as well as

managing the ponds, women have to given special trainings besides to other managerial

issues for instance, feeding fish, pond management and cooking are among the key which is

very important to the women this is because of the tradition that in a rural area women took

the responsibility in cooking and feeding of the whole family. The result shows that there is

no gender based trainings and workshops have given to the farmers in pond culture system

rather the head of the family frequent participation in all trainings.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Farmers in the study area have good opportunity vital resources such as water either diverted

from the rivers or directly from sub-surface springs. Water is very important for successful

implementation of pond culture. According to the study results, farmers suffer from low

agricultural production and productivity due to the constraints schussed above. Therefore,

future interventions should focus on alternative farming businesses techniques like fish

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farming which should be strengthened through allocation of adequate resources and expertise.

Nationwide stimulus package for small holder aquaculture in Kenya and Nigeria has led

expansion of aquaculture which eventually turned out to be one of the fastest growing

agribusiness. There also need to be revalidation of the already introduced farming

technology through further verification researches.

Market linkage between small holder farmers group and local cooperative unions should be

established as the latter can be a potential processor and supplier of fish feed, which is a

critical in put in fish farming. Farmers in this area do have access to financial credit in which

solely relies on government and relatives support. One alternative can be that these small

holder fish farmers become a member of farmers union where they can have access to credit

saving facilities there by develop confidence in taking risks in case of failure on new business

such as aquaculture.

References

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Bahnasawy, M.H, Abdel-Baky, T.E and Abd-Allah, G. (2003). Growth performance of Nile
tilapia fingerlings raised in an earthen pond. Archives of Polish Fisheries, 11: 277-285.

FAO, (2011). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. United Republic of
Tanzania - National Aquaculture sector overview.

FAO, (2012). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. United Republic of
Tanzania - National Aquaculture sector overview.

Yemi Akegbejo-Samsons and Deji Adeoye,(2012). Measuring profitability in small scale


aquaculture enterprises in south west Nigeria. IIFET, 2012 Tanzania proceeding.

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