CONCEPT NOTE

Project Title : Strategies and Options for Sustainable income and employment contribution of
fishery for the poor households in rift valley lakes of Ethiopia
Principal Investigator
Hiwot Teshome (Ms.)
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, National Fishery and other Aquatic
Life Research Center
Tel: +251 113 380023 (office)
+251 911 562529 (cell)
Email: hiwothiwi2000@gmail.com

Background

Ethiopia is a land locked country and fisheries resource potential consists of lakes, rivers,

reservoirs, small water bodies and aquaculture. Lake fisheries in the rift valley lakes started very

recently in the mid 1950s in Lakes Ziway, Awassa, and Koka by providing fishing concession to

a single entire lake when a demand for fish developed in the capital of Addis Ababa among the

foreign community (Italian and others) and some upper class urban based Ethiopians.

Lake fisheries therefore, had a very negligible role in term of the rural economy, employment,

income generation and nutrition. This situation has changed very gradually over the years. In

1965, the total annual production of fish was estimated between 70 and 100 tons (ELFDP, 1993).

But nowadays according to FAO 2012, country fishery profile, in 2010 the annual production of

fish is estimated to 18,000 tons.

Current demand for fish in the country is almost more than three times of the current production

of fish in the country, current annual demand is estimated at 65,344 tones, equivalent to eight

hundred gram per person. Future demand at the present population growth rate will reach 83 483
tone year 2010, 94,526 tons in 2015 and 117,586 tons in 2025 this is the minimum demand since

factors other than population are not considered (FAO, 2005). At present, the country has an

estimated annual total exploitable fish potential of 51 481 tone, which can meet only 79 percent

of the current actual demand 55 percent of the projected demand in 2010, and 44 percent of the

projected demand in 2015, based solely on population size.

Although Ethiopian waters harbor have more than 180 fish species, commercially important are

only Catfishes, Labeo, Tilapia, and Barbus and Nile perch (Golubstov and Mina, 2003). Federal

and state laws regarding commercial fishing did not exist until 2002/2003 this has led to localize

overfishing due to this some commercially important species of fish are already suffering from

overexploitation, including Nile Perch in Lake Chamo, and Tilapia in Lakes Hawasa and Zway

are among those.

Based on the Proclamation No: 315/2003 Fisheries Development and Utilization, two regional

governments which have major fishery water bodies produced their own respective proclamation

for management of fisheries under their authority. Although there is no fisheries policy document

in Ethiopia, a range of national development documents identify fisheries as being a sector in

need of support to enable it to increase production and contribute to the food security of the

growing population. The Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty

(PASDEP) and the Rural Development Policy are two such documents.
 Statement of the Problem

In Ethiopia, the importance of lake fisheries sector is relatively difficult to evaluate because of

poor recording system of catching especially in remote areas of the country. Even though the

commercially important fish species in rift valley lakes are already identified and known, the

contribution of the fishery in terms of employment and income for the poor households in rift

valley lakes has not yet identified. So that this study will focuses on the existing contribution of

fishery for the poor households in rift valley lakes of Ethiopia. Thus, the general objective of this

study is to develop appropriate strategies and options to improve the income of the poor

households in the study area. The specific objectives of the study are:

 Describing the existing contribution of fishery to the poor households in rift valley lakes of

Ethiopia,

 Analyzing factors determining supply, demand and consumption of fish in rift valley lakes of

Ethiopia,

 Identify possible strategies and options to recommend for the farther improvement of the sector.

Literature Review

Employment contribution of fishery

Total fishermen estimated at 15 000, of which about 5 000 are active and the remainder part-time

and occasional fishers. Of the total fulltime fishermen, 2 790 (55.6 percent) are organized into

cooperatives or peer groups but as a secondary sector about 20 000 people are estimated to

engage in ancillary activities of the commercial (lake) fisheries, Ethiopian Custom Authority,

2001 cited in (FAO, 2011).

In general men and women are engaged in fishery together, men are engaged in fishing and

women are in fish processing and marketing, women are also known to engage in near shore

harvesting activities and men are known to engage in fish marketing and distribution. Other

ancillary activities such as net making, boatbuilding, engine repair and maintenance etc. can

provide additional fishery-related employment and income opportunities in marine and inland

fishing communities.

Small –scale fisheries

Small-scale fisheries operate at widely differing organizational levels ranging from self

employed single operators through informal microenterprises to formal sector businesses. This

subsector, therefore, is not homogenous within and across countries and regions and attention to

this fact is warranted when formulating strategies and policies for enhancing its contribution to

food security and poverty alleviation.

According to the agreement of the FAO working group on small-scale fisheries (Bangkok,

November 2003), as cited in (FAO, 2005), it would be best to describe the sector on the basis of

the range of characteristics that are likely to be found in any particular small-scale fishery.

Therefore, small-scale fishery was endorsed; as a dynamic and evolving sector employing labour

intensive harvesting, processing and distribution technologies to exploit marine and inland water

fishery resources. The activities of this subsector, conducted fulltime or part-time, or just

seasonally, are often targeted on supplying fish and fishery products to local and domestic

markets, and for subsistence consumption.

Methodology

Both primary and secondary data sources will be used for the proposed study. The primary data

will be collected from 165 sample households. Semi-structured questionnaire using face-to-face

interviews, Personal observation and Focus Group Discussions with the members of the fishing

community will be done. Both descriptive statistics and econometric model will be used to

analyze the data. Descriptive statistics such mean percentage, standard deviation and frequency

of appearance was used, whereas on the econometric approach adopted the Probit model will be

used to identify determinants of demand, supply and consumption of fish.

Expected Outcomes of the study

The result of the study is important for development practitioners and policy makers to design

appropriate interventions and strategies that enable the sustainable utilization of the fish

resources so that to enables the contribution of the sector sustainable in terms of income and

employment for the poor households, can be also used as an input for farther studies in the sector

The results will be communicated to stakeholders including policy makers, research institutions,

development agencies and the scientific community by producing important outputs like reports,

policy synthesis and briefs, Finally, identifying about the existing contribution of fishery sector

will help the policy makers and other stockholders to know where and how to intervene for the

farther betterment of the sustainable resource use.

References

ELFDP (1993), Ethiopia lake fisheries development project. Socio economic study. p14.

FAO/Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research. 2004. Report of the second session of the
Working Party on Small-scale Fisheries. Bangkok, Thailand, 18 – 21 November 2003. FAO
Fisheries Report. No. 735 Rome, FAO. 21 pp.

FAO (2005). Increasing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to poverty alleviation and food
security. FAO Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries. No. 10. Rome, FAO. 79 pp.

FAO (2005). Fishery and Aquaculture Country profile. Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.
Ethiopia.

FAO (2012). Fishery and Aquaculture Country profile. Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
Ethiopia.

Golubtstov, A.S. and Mina M.V. (2003). Fish species diversity in the main drainage systems of
Ethiopia: Current state of knowledge and research perspectives. Ethiopia Journal of Natural
Resources 5:281-318