Fish Resource Survey in

Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State

Agricultural Extension Directorate

Ministry of Agriculture

July 2011

Fishery Development Program

ii

Fishery Development Program:

Fish Resource Survey in

Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State

Prepared by:

Hussien Abegaz Fish Technologist, Agricultural Extension Directorate, MoA, Team leader

Alayu Yalew

Aquaculture & fisheries Researcher, Bahir Dar Fish & Aquatic Life Research Center

Ermis Mengistu Agricultural Economist, Plan & Program Directorate, MoA

iii

Fish Resource survey

in

Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State

Contents Acknowledgements ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v Acronyms and symbols ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi 1. Executive summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

2.1. Background --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 2.2. Objectives ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

3. Scope of the study and Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 3.1. Scope of the study ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 3.2. Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 3.3. Study Area ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

4. The Benshangul-Gumuz Region ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 5. Fish resources potential and current production --------------------------------------------------- 11

5.1. Spatial distribution pattern of commercially important fish species in the region ------------- 11 5.2. Composition of commercial fish species of Benishangul Gumuz region ----------------------- 12 5.3. Fish resource potential of major rivers in the region ------------------------------------------------ 14

6. Annual fish production ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 7. Fishing, fish handling and preservation -------------------------------------------------------------- 17

7.1. Fishers, fishing gears and fishing operation ----------------------------------------------------------- 17 7.2. Fish Handling and curing --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21

8. Fish consumption and marketing --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 8.1. Fish Production and Consumption ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 8.2. Supply of fish ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 8.3. Cost of production and Price of the product ---------------------------------------------------------- 24 8.4. Current Fish Market and Marketing Systems --------------------------------------------------------- 25 8.5. Prospects of Consumption and Demand --------------------------------------------------------------- 26

9. Fishers cooperatives -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 10. Aquaculture/Fishery investment ------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 11. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) ------------------------------------------------------- 30 12. Institutional support for the fisheries Sector ----------------------------------------------------- 30 13. The potential contribution of fisheries to development objectives --------------------------- 31 14. Constraints for the development of the sub-sector ---------------------------------------------- 31 15. Issues and interventions/actions -------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 16. Conclusions and Recommendation ----------------------------------------------------------------- 37

Annexes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Annex 1. Terms of Reference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Annex 2. List of persons/ institutions consulted --------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Annex 3. List of fish species from sampled rivers ------------------------------------------------------------ 42 Annex 4. Photos of sampled fish species------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43 Annex 5. Reference and bibliography --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45

iv

List of Figures

Figure 1 Traditional fishing at Dabus River ................................................................................................. 7 Figure 1. People involving in fishing; (a) A woman with her Gambudi (b) Children engaged in hooking

(c) Fishermen in fishing at Abay................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2. Main Rivers of Benishangul Gumuz Regional State ................................................................... 10 Figure 4 Occurrence of fish families ........................................................................................................... 13 Figure 5. Spatial distribution of fish species ............................................................................................... 13 Figure 6 Annual catch for the last five years (Source: Bureau of Agriculture, BGRS) .............................. 17 Figure 7. Tip of fishing spear ...................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 8 locally used poisoning plant......................................................................................................... 19 Figure 9. Basket traps ................................................................................................................................. 20 Figure 10 Members of the cooperative ....................................................................................................... 28

List of Tables

Table 1 Physical parameters of sampled sites ............................................................................................ 12

Table 2 Spatial distribution of fish species ................................................................................................. 12

Table 3. Fish production potential of Abay, Anger, Beles, Dabus and Dedessa Rivers ............................. 15

Table 4 Fishing hooks price at different Woredas ..................................................................................... 18

Table 5 Fish market distance from major production areas ........................................................................ 25

Table 6. Profile of fisher cooperatives and their capital (2003E.C.) ........................................................... 29

Table 7 Villageization and number of people participated ......................................................................... 34

Front cover photo: left and right photos are fishers at Dabus river with their catch near

Bambasi town, the middle photo is fishing at Abay river at Chesega Kebele Sirba Abay Woreda.

v

Acknowledgements

The AED of the MoARD are very much indebted for the Improving Productivity and Market

Success (IPMS) of the Ethiopian Farmers Project of the International Livestock Research

Institute (ILRI) for the financial support of the survey. We are also very much grateful to the

Bahir Dar Fisheries and other Aquatic Life Research Center of ARARI for participation on the

study. We also would like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Atnafu Agonafir, Head of Agricultural

Extension Main Process, BGRS BoA; Mr. Endalamw Adane, Regional Livestock Expert,

Benshangul-Gumz Region Bureau of Agricultural and Rural Development for their facilitation

and support in data collection. Mr. Samuel Nigusse and Amare Sima from Equitable

Development Directorate, Ministry of Federal Affaires also thanked for their assistance to

successfully complete the survey.

Mr. Gelaye Dineka from Planning and evaluation Officer, BoFED-BGRS is also highly indebted

for providing us many valuable previous works and documents. Mr. Tekle Mohammed,

cooperative expert of Sirba Abay Woreda, for his patience in staying for longer in the field

during data collection at Chesega kebele.

We want to acknowledge those fishers from Bertha and Gumuz people who co-operated the team

in giving primary information and setting gill nets in their respective rivers during data

collection. Unforgettable ones are the fisher of the Anger River who pushed up the car and

delivered the team from wild fire which were crossing our road and approached suddenly.

Last but not least, the study team wants to forward heartfelt acknowledgement for others whose

names are not mentioned here but annexed in the list of contacted persons for all their keen and

responsive support provided during the survey. Without their unreserved support, this study

would not be possible.

vi

Acronyms and symbols

°C Degree Celsius

AED Agricultural Extension Directorate

V AFRD&RD Animal and Fisheries Resources Development and Regulatort Department

ARARI Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute

BDFOALRRC Bahir Dar Fish & Other Aquatic Living Resources Research Center

BGRS/Region Benshangul -Gumuz Regional State

BoA Bureau of Agriculture

BoFED Bureau of Finance and Economic Development, BGRS

BoWR Bureau of Water Resources

cm Centimeter

CPUE Catch per Unit Effort

CSA Central Statistics Agency

EARO/ now EIAR/ Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization

E.C Ethiopian Calendar

EIAR Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research

EtBr Ethiopian Birr

FDRE Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

g gram

ha hectare

HH House Hold

Kg Kilogram

Km Kilometer

LFDP Lake Fisheries Development Project

m meter

m. a. s. l Meters above sea level

mm Millimeter

MoA Ministry of Agriculture

MoFedA Ministry of Federal Affairs

NFLARR National Fish & Other Aquatic Living Resources Research Center

NGO Non Governmental Organization

OA Office of Agriculture

t/yr tons per year

1. Executive summary

The Benshangul Gumuz Regional State has ample natural resources; water bodies constitute perennial

and intermittent rivers, reservoirs and flood plain areas with diversified fish species and potential for fish

production. The fishery resource has been exploited for centuries mainly by indigenous Gumuz

and Berta peoples.

The region mainly flounders under the Abay River, with many tributary rivers derived from the highlands

of Amhara and Oromiya regions. The fish fauna that inhabited in the Nile basin are distributed throughout

the chain of the small tributaries rivers and streams. Apart from the altitude of the area, long term

turbidity of the river water also determined the diversity of fish species to be found in the region.

Compared to the other rivers, the diversity of fish in Dabus River is by far lower than the other

rivers because of its lower transparency and higher altitude.

A total of 29 fish species important for food has been known to present in all studied rivers (Abay, Anger,

Beles, Dabus and Dedessa). These species are grouped in to 11 Families. The dominant family in these

river systems is the Cyprinidae, with a diversity of 9 species of fish, followed by Mormyridae with 5 fish

species. The Characidae and Distichodontida each had three species and Claridae was the least only with

two species.

Concerning fish resource potential of major rivers in the region, the total annual harvestable

fish from BGRS Rivers is estimated to be 2400 tons/yr. Among these, River Abay covers

70% of the region‟s total potential. This estimated potential does not include the potential

of the Renaissance Dam being constructed. This big dam with an area of 1680 km2 is

expected to produce an estimated amount of 7628 tons of fish in a year.

The catch has never been recorded systematically and the reports of BoA towards the annual fish

production are very rough and low compared to the fish being harvested and consumed in the

region as of the team‟s observation experienced during the field survey.

The rural household based socio-economic survey was conducted in twenty Woredas of BGRS

in 2006. The number of Heads of the Household (HHH) used in the sampling frame of this

survey were 3,739 and distributed in all four zones and twenty Woredas. The survey indicated

that from all sampled 150 Kebeles, 132 Kebeles used fish from the rivers. The survey reveals

that 70-83% of 20 Kebeles, 50-70% of 10 Kebeles and 10-45% of 19 Kebeles' population had an

access for fishing at the nearby rivers.

Concerning the fish consumption, the above mentioned survey report revealed that the whole

population of Mandura and Sirba Abay Woredas and 83% of the population in 36 Kebeles of

Maokomo, Guba, Bulen and Kemashi Woredas used fish for food. This indicates that the culture

of the BGRS in consuming fish is by far higher and it is estimated that a minimum of 183 tons of

fish produced annually in the main rivers of the region. The catches are used mostly for home

consumption and rarely sold in marketing places as fresh and/or dried when the production

exceeds the needs of the family.

2

Fish consumption in the region varied with the ethnic groups; fish is highly consumed by the

native Gumuz and Berta people. The mode of utilization is in fresh, sun dried, fried-dry or

smoked form. According to the informants, large amount of well dried fish is produced at Ayima

River is being harvested and marketed to Sudan. While in Anger River /Soge area/, farmers are

marketed half- fried fish to Soge town. The fishes are gutted are put on fire for short time. This

will help to prolog the fish shelf life. No other preservation known in this area. With this

conditions, fish will be easily contaminated and losses its quality and finally become spoiled.

The local high temperature will aggravate the situation.

The level of exploitation of fish from the sampled rivers is only 8 % of the total potential. If access to

reach the rivers is possible and the necessary fishing gears and other facilities are going to be availed, the

level of exploitation could increase and more fish would have been consumed and feed the market.

The most common fishing gears are: scoop net, different types of basket traps, seeds and leafs of

poisonous plants, spears, cast net, gill net and hook and line Mostly, fishing has done in group in

all areas. Depending on the distance of fishing area, fishermen stayed 1-4 days in fishing. At

Beles River a group of farmers stayed half day. While at River Anger, Soge area farmers are

going to fishing in group which has up to 7 members and stayed 3-4 days in fishing and have-15-

20 fishes/person/day. The scope net and traps are used o at small rivers when the flow rate is

low.

The dominant fishing practice is traditional using hooks and traps. Modern fishing using

motorized boats and gillnets is introduced in few Woredas in small quantity. In Sirba Abay

Woreda, Chesiga Kebele fishermen cooperative is used motorized boat with 4 gillnets of 50 m.

This 3 m long fiber glass boat provided by the regional government has 25 Hp out board engine.

In Metekel Zone, Guba Woreda, at Yarenja and Bamza Kebeles the local people used gillnets

and hooks for fishing. But the length of gillnets are short not more than 20 m, with mesh size of

7 to14cm. In additions, in Bambasi Woreda, the Dabus Fishing Cooperative used 3 gillnets and

hooks supported by an agriculture investor, who has a farm at near area. In Belojiganfoy

Woreda, the Saydalecha Livestock Development Cooperative bought a 100 m long gillnet.

Modern gears are available in market, mainly from Metekel zone prisons Administration, Bahir

Dar Fishers Cooperative and Sudan. The prisons at Metekel produced gillnet of 20 m long and

1.70 m deep gillnet and 3.5 m frame diameter cast net at a cost of EtBr 470 and 250 respectively.

The assembled gillnet has locally made lead sinker and without floater. It is a good source of

fishing gears, however the net makers still requires training to produce standardized gillnets and

cast nets. Hooks are available at different town such as Babmasi, Chagni and Bamza towns.

While the fishers are willing to accept and use the new gillnets and boats, they do not seem to

have got such nets and boats made any of these subsequently with their own resources. The

reasons given by the fishers include the high capital cost, recurring and replacement costs of the

nets and the inability to convert the new opportunities improved gears provides into profits (i.e.,

lack of forward and backward linkages to support the activity).

3

Considering the improvement of traditional fishing gears, some can be replaced by modern gears

like cast nets and gillnets. Cast nets (made from nylon twine) are best suited for shallow, block

free bottom and the fish are sufficiently concentrated to give a good chance of capture. The

mesh size can be adjusted according to species and size of target fish. Gillnets are also suitable

and effective gears in the large stretch of open stagnant water in some parts of the rivers. But it

will not operate in strong flows. Some places slow moving water areas, such as the place where

Abbay and Dabus met, Abbay and Dedessa met, and lower Abbay channel and rivers that flows

in flat plains can deploy efficient gears i.e. gill net and seine net.

In general, there is lack of the technical skills and the essential gears for catching fish. Fisheries

cooperatives should be organized and supported. There is a need for a stronger extension effort

with provision of technical and material assistance.

Four fishermen cooperatives are formed in some Woredas. Some are organized by themselves

and others are supported Woredas Cooperative Promotion Office. However, all are not legalized

yet.

The excact contribution of the fishery subsector to the achievment of regional development

objectives is poorly documneted. Fish is one of the historical widespread and significant diets

for Gumuz and Berta peoples. Along the rivers per capita consumption of fish amongst these

peoples is about 22 kg/person/yr. Therefore, fisheries contribute immensely to food security in

the region.

Current estimates on fish production are 183 ton/yr and almost all of the fish landed is self

consumption. These means fishes are of special significance for food security in the region, as

most of the fish caught is going to be consumed domestically mostly by local communities.

Fishers sell their catch at local markets after satisfy their needs. In terms of nutrition, fish catch

provides high quality animal protein crucial in providing balanced diets for the rural people.

The study has identified major constraints for development with respect to economic growth and

sustainable natural resource utilization:- week institutional capacity of development institutions

ams fisher cooperative fish quality assurance and marketing system constrains, lack of attention

in fishery for fishers' community development among policy makers, underutilized fish resource,

and poor handling of fresh and dried fish along the distribution chain mainly due to lack of

handling facilities,

Based on these constraints, the team recommended the following development interventions:

awareness creation, facilitation of gear supplies, strengthen/ organizing fishers cooperatives,

facilitating access to credit, capacity building through training, infrastructure support, promoting

entrepreneurship in fish trade, resource monitoring and management, organizational setup and

extension support, undertaking applied researches, institutional linkage.

Finally, the study concludes, the current fish production is at subsistence level and the catches

sold in the markets are insignificant. Production can increase minimum up to 1200 tons/yr from

rivers near to market areas.

4

Despite the region has such an eminent fish resource, some of the people are seen starving and

the region in general is food insecure. The small-scale subsistence nature of agricultural system

coupled with the frequent drought and food crisis has been contributing to the low performance

and growth of the sector, in broad sense. These and other factors like the general economical

weakness and illiteracy coupled with shortage in skill and supply of modern fishing gears and

techniques, makes the sector to contribute very little to the development and welfare of the

society. Therefore, fishery development projects should be definitely formulated to the

significance and the contribution of fisheries to reduce food insecurity in the region.

Generally, the fishery resource potential should be systematically identified. The stock

assessment, the breeding, feeding and migration pattern and the production potentials of highly

important species needs to be studied, and hence would help to identify the potential fishing sites

and appropriate fishing methods (techniques) and appropriate fishing gears will be

recommended. In addition, promotion works and training to the local communities, the

development agents, the experts at different levels and the socio-economic survey and marketing

studies are indispensable.

5

2. Introduction 2.1. Background

The Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State has large rivers and enormous streams. The indigenous

people like Gumuz and Berta people have exploited the fishery resource for centuries. Despite

this, the current level of development and utilization of the fishery resource hardly contributes to

achieve food security and economic growth in the region. A wide range of constraints

contributed to this, of which the region lacks skilled human resource capacity in the field to

explore the opportunities and challenges and devise appropriate interventions. Recognizing this,

the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State Bureau of Agriculture has requested the MoA for

technical assistance. Thus, this preliminary fishery development study has done on major rivers

namely\ Abay, Dabus, Beles, Anger Rivers and Diga Reservoir. This study has been considered

as a part of previous work on Reconnaissance Survey on the River Fisheries of Benishangul-

Gumuz Regional State, which was done by MoA-AFRD&RD and EARO-NFLARR in 2003.

The difference is, it is revised and filled the information gap of Annual Harvestable Potential of

the water bodies, socio- economic aspects in terms of anglers, and market, along the adjacent

water bodies. In addition to these, current detail data were collected at Woreda and Kebele level

which may be used for feasible project preparation.

This study program is implemented in March and May 2011. The study was financed by

Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) Project based on the agreement made

between the Federal government of Ethiopia (Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Extension

Directorate) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

2.2. Objectives

General: The objective of this study is to make a survey to understand the current fishery status

and identify future prospects of the Benishangul Gumuz region.

Specific objectives:

To assess the fish resources and estimate the yield potential of major rivers of the

region

Assess the current exploitation level, fishing methods and post harvest techniques

To assess the socio-economic role of fisheries in the region

To assess fish marketing, chains and actors

Identify the major constraints and suggest possible intervention measures

6

3. Scope of the study and Methodology

3.1. Scope of the study

The study covers both biological, socio-economic and market aspects of the riverine fishery in

Benishangul-Gumuz region. As the duration of the study was too short, application of rapid

assessment of fish marketing and empirical models for estimation of potential fish yield were

found to be appropriate. The report also comprises possible interventions and other important

recommendations that should be addressed in the short and long run.

3.2. Methodology

Materials used

The following materials have been employed for the study;

Set of fishing gillnets with 2 m width and 25 m length

Inflatable boat and outboard engine (15 HP)

Weighing balance (Capacity of 30 kg)

Measuring board (1 m long)

Photo camera (Sony DCS-W170 Super Steady Shot)

GPS (Garmin Venture - M350)

3.3. Study Area The study was carried out focusing on the fresh water reaches of the lower Abbay basin in the

Benishangul Gumuz region, Ethiopia. The Abbay basin is one of the 5 river basins of Ethiopia

having many tributaries. Five major rivers of the basin were chosen purposely; Abay, Anger,

Beles, Dabus, and Dedessa. Study sites of Anger, Dedessa and Abay rivers are located in

Kamashi zone, Dabus River in Assosa zone and Abay and Beles Rivers and Diga reservoir are

situated in Metekel zone. Sampling was made during the third and fourth week of February for

Abay, Anger, Dabus and Dedessa rivers. Sampling was done on May/2011 for Beles and lower

Abbay River. Secondary data on fisheries and related activities being undertaken and/or planned

in the region were collected from Bureau of Agriculture, Woreda Offices of Agriculture, Bureau

of water Resources Development, Bureau of Finance and Economic Development, Food Security

and Early Warning Offices and Fishers Groups.

1. Abay River: - Being the largest river, two sampling sites where most fishers are found

was selected. One sampling has been taken at chesega kebele of Sirba Abay Woreda

(Kamashi zone). The specific site is found upstream to the entrance of other sampled

rivers just at the entrance of Boqa River. The second sampling was taken after all the

rivers joined it at Yarenja kebele of Guba Woreda (Metekel zone) around the renaissance

dam.

2. Anger River: - the specific study/sampling area for this river was located at a distance of

18 km from the Belojiganfoy Woreda capital, Sogie. The water is clear enough for the

7

penetration of sunlight the temperature was recorded as 290C during sampling at 9:00am

in February.

3. Beles River: - the river was sampled at Pawie Woreda on two locations. One sampling

site was 3 km far from Gilgel Beles town (Metekel zone capital) under the bridge towards

Guba main road. The second sampling was at the upper most part of the river diversion

dam (Diga) located in Mender 7 at a distance of 18 km from Gilgel Beles town.

4. Dabus River: - sampling was taken at the bridge of the river towards Lekemt at a distance

of 6 km from Bambasi town and the water is deeper (more than 3 m) and turbid

throughout the year. This river is a shelter of hippos (Hippopotamus amphibious) and

their number reaches up to 10 in one location.

Figure 1 Traditional fishing at Dabus River

5. Dedessa River: - This River is found at a distance of 33 km from Kamashi town on the

way to Yaso woreda. Sampling was taken around the main bridge of the river Dedessa, at

Kobi Kebele. This water has a depth of 50 cm on the shallower and more than 2.5 m at its

deeper most part. The water is very clear and warm all the day, its temperature reached

270C at mid day reading.

Specific location (altitude, latitude and longitude readings) where fish samples taken has been

measured using GPS. Water transparency and depth has been measured with secci disc and tape

meter. Fish samples were collected at each river using gillnets recommended for riverine

fisheries having mesh sizes of 6, 8, 10 and 12 cm. Weight and length of fish caught during

sampling was measured using field balance and measuring board. To estimate the total

production of fish in a year, an interview of fishers in each river has been made. For the

estimation of the potential fish yield of each river, the simplest model of Welcomme (1976)

relating catch and river length, by the formula

C = 0.0033L1.9539

, or more approximately

8

C = (L2)/300; where C= Catch (t/yr) and L = River Length (km) was used.

Basic information was also obtained by direct observation and questioning the fishers about the

fish they used to catch, gears used and means of fishing. social, economical and cultural studies

as well as fish marketing study was carried out using the interviews made with fishers at

different Kebeles, fisher groups, experts engaged in the subject matter, private sector and

different governmental organizations. Data analysis was done using Microsoft excel spread sheet

2007, to make proportions and graphs.

4. The Benshangul-Gumuz Region

The Benishangul Gumuz is among the National Regional State of the FDRE; with an estimated

total population of 667,049 in 2007 nearly 86% of the population lives in rural and 14% in urban

areas (CSA, 2008). The region is located in the western part of the country between 09.170

-

12.060

North latitude and 34.100

- 37.040

East longitude. The region has international boundary

with Sudan in the west and regional boundary by Amhara Regional State in the North and North

East, Oromiya Regional State in the South East and Gambella Regional State in the South. The

regional capital Asossa is situated west of Addis Ababa at a distance of 687 km and located at

10003‟33.4”N, 34032‟36.5”E and 1560m asl altitude. The region has a total area of

approximately 49,289.46 km2 (CSA, 2004) with altitude ranging from 580 to 2,731m asl.

The region has four zones (Metekel, Assosa, Kamash and Mao Komo special Zone) divided in to

20 Woredas. The native/indigenous ethnic groups are Bertha, Gumuz, Shinasha, Mao and Komo

with the respective proportion of 26%, 21%, 7.5%, 2% and 1% of the total population (CSA,

2008).

The coastal settlement pattern of the Gumuz people in the region means a direct economic

dependence on the rivers, particularly on the fisheries resources. Fishery is by far and large the

most important sources of food (high quality protein) and income. During this survey, all

members of the family were seen involving in fisheries activities, men fishing throughout the day

along the river (Fig 1a), women made basket trap locally called “Gambudi” (Fig 1a) and used for

fishing, Children use hooks of different sizes (Fig 1b) for fishing. Apart from the demand of the

local people, all Woreda towns need to have fish with lucrative marketing price. In different

Woredas fishers contribute an initial capital and organized either in to group, private ltd

association or cooperative.

9

Figure 2. People involving in fishing; (a) A woman with her Gambudi (b) Children engaged in hooking

(c) Fishermen in fishing at Abay

Culturally the peoples of the BGR, especially Gumuz and Bertha, are dependent on fish as a major source

of their protein requirement. Irrespective of the national average fish consumption of Ethiopia, the BGR

people annual fish consumption is big ranging 4 kg individually. In most part of the country individuals

prefer a very limited species of fish (mainly Nile Tilapia, Nile perch and Labeobarbus species). But in this

region there is no fish species refused by any member of the family

10

Figure 3. Main Rivers of Benishangul Gumuz Regional State

11

5. Fish resources potential and current production

Findings revealed that there are about 153 to 183 valid indigenous freshwater fish species

included in 25 families; 37 to 57 of them are endemic to Ethiopia (Glubtsov and Mina 2003,

Abebe Getahun, 2005b).

The Benishangul Gumuz Regional State is under the Abay basin with ample natural resources;

water bodies constitute perennial and seasonal rivers, reservoirs and flood plain areas with

diversified fish species and potential for production. The region mainly flounders under the Abay

River, with many tributary rivers derived from the highlands of Amhara and Oromiya regions.

The fish fauna that inhabited the Nile basin appeared throughout big and small tributary rivers

and streams. However, there is a natural and artificial ecological change and conditions limit

some type of fish species to be definite area.

According to Welcome‟s (1985) river classification the Benshanguel-Gumuz region rivers

mainly grouped in flood rivers, where there are extremes of annual fluctuation in water level

from severe flood to sometimes complete desiccation in dry season. In addition to this, the

considerable difference in numbers of species inhabiting various river systems are largely

attributable to the size of the river as represented by its basin area or correlated with the length of

main channel or stream order.

5.1. Spatial distribution pattern of commercially important fish species in the region

According to Glubtsov et al 2003, the number of species appears to be negatively correlated with

altitude. The decrease in number of fish species from lower to upper reaches is typical of most

river system of the world (Nikolsky, 1963; Sydenham, 1977). In Ethiopia this decrease is

especially pronounced because of steep altitudinal gradients and occurrence of rich lowland

faunas in most basins (Glubtsov and Mina, 2003). This survey revealed that apart from the

altitude of the area, which mainly matters the diversity, long term turbidity of the river water also

seen determining the number of species to be found in the water body. Compared to the other

rivers, the diversity of fish in Dabus River is by far lower than the other rivers because of its

lower transparency and higher altitude (Table 1 & 2).

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Table 1 Physical parameters of sampled sites Name of the

River

Specific site Location Altitude

(m asl)

River Width

(m)

Transparency

of water (cm)

Abay 1. Chesega kebele

(Sirba Abay Woreda)

10007‟36.9”N,

350 21‟40.6” E

592

ca.300

75

2. Yarenja Kebele

(Guba Woreda)

11059‟35.2”N,

360 11‟33.6” E

553

ca.200

75

Anger NW of Sogie town

(Belojiganfoy Woreda)

090 29‟00.1”N

36010‟11.1” E

1000

45

60

Beles 1. Mender 7

(Pawe Woreda)

110 21‟03.4”N,

360 24‟00.2” E

1023

Ca.120

65

2. Bridge to Guba

(Pawe Woreda)

110 11‟57.8”N

360 19‟34.1”E

987

50

70

Dabus Bridge near Bambasi Town

(Bambasi Woreda)

09045‟44”N

34048‟31.7”E

1337

75

10

Dedessa Bridge to Yaso

(Kamashi Woreda) 09

041 10.4 N

36001 29.2 E

835

65

55

5.2. Composition of commercial fish species of Benishangul Gumuz region

In this survey, a total of 29 fish species important for food has been known to present in all studied rivers

(Abay, Anger, Beles, Dabus and Dedessa). These species are grouped in to 11 Families. The dominant

family in these river systems is Cyprinidae with a diversity of 9 species of fish followed by Mormyridae

with 5 fish species. Characidae and Distichodontida each had three species and Claridae have two species.

But the family Bagridae, Centropomidae, Channidae, Cichlidae, Malapteruridae, Mochokidae and

Tetraodontide are each represented only by a single species in this survey.

Table 2 Spatial distribution of fish species

Family Fish species diversity in the region

Abay Anger Beles Dabus Dedessa

Species

occurrence

Number

of species

Bagridae 1 1 1 - - 3 1

Centropomidae 1 - 1 - - 2 1

Channidae 1 1 0 - - 2 1

Characidae 2 2 2 - 1 4 3

Cichlidae 1 1 1 1 1 5 1

Clariidae 2 1 1 1 - 4 2

Cyprinidae 5 4 3 1 3 5 9

Distichodontida 2 1 0 - - 2 3

Malapteruridae 1 - 1 - - 2 1

Mochokidae 1 1 1 - - 3 1

Mormyridae 5 1 1 - 1 4 5

Tetraodontidae 1 - - - 0 1 1

Total 23 13 12 3 6 29

13

The richest river in the diversity of fish fauna is Abay especially on the second sampling area (Yarenja)

after the entrance of all major tributary rivers. During this survey, 15 fish species have been identified at

Chesega kebele and other 10 extra species have been known to occur at Yarenja kebele of Guba Woreda.

Totally 23 fish species (Table 2) have been identified in Abay. Apart from its richness in diversity, the

biggest fish weighing 4.5 kg has been recorded in this river caught by a gill net of 12cm stretched mesh.

The second richest river was Anger with 13 fish species caught in one night. The biggest fish species

caught during sampling of this river weighed 3 kg. The Number of species caught would have been more

if the crocodiles did not predate fishes entangled by the gill net during sampling. The river with lowest

fish diversity was Dabus only with 3 species followed by Dedessa (Fig 4). In the Dabus River, the

dominant fish species caught during sampling was catfish (C. gariepinus) with a proportion of 83%.

Figure 4 Occurrence of fish families

Figure 5. Spatial distribution of fish species

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Fre

qu

en

cy/N

o. o

f ri

vers

Family

Occurrence of fishes

0

5

10

15

20

25

Abay Anger Beles Dabus Dedessa

No

. of

spe

cie

s

Rivers

Species diversity of rivers

14

5.3. Fish resource potential of major rivers in the region

Fishing is mostly artisanal, except some group of fishers like Chesega Fishers Association, in

the study area and its purpose is limited to meet subsistence needs of fishing communities in

the form of food by local people, and an additional source of household income by a few

settlers. Though rivers are rich in fish resource, Fishing is carried out for limited months of the

year, November to May in all members of the community. But Gumuz and Bertha people used

to fish all seasons of the year though the catch declines during summer when the water level

become higher and strange to set fishing gears.

Modern fishing is being practiced using motor boat with gillnets by some group of fishers.

Most fishing is subsistence and being practiced using traditional gears like hook and line, trap,

cast net and spears. The other worst and killer fishing practice is use of poisonous plant

materials, like Birbira (crushed seed) and Bitsa (Katiba tree bark), and poisonous chemicals

(including Malathione, Endosulfan, 2,4D and other herbicides). These actions worsen not only

the fish stock of the water bodies but it is also affects human beings and livestock directly.

Knowing the fish resource potential means information needed for a rational decision-making in

fisheries management and development. Fishery activity, biological information and bio-

economic in formations are the basic data for fishery development. Therefore, accurate fisheries

statistics in the rivers; and their adjourning flood plains is vital for a number of purposes.

(a) To make an inventory of the fisheries resources of major and tributary rivers and rapid

assessment methods frequently suffice information on the state of the fishery.

(b) To formulate a sound development and management plan of the resources on which the

fishery is based and to answer logistic questions about how and where to deploy limited

resources. For this, preliminary assessment of the level of exploitation of the fishery

relative to its potential by a simple method is needed. Thereafter, more detailed studies

depend on the findings of the preliminary survey. In fisheries w

(c) To evaluate impacts of alteration of the environment by natural or man-provoked

processes. Here interest centers on loss of benefit which often requires considerable

supplementary socio-economic information.

The ecosystems of larger Benishangul Gumuz Rivers are generally very poorly understood and

there is a great lack of data on most aspects of the fishery and the fish community. Sampling

large river systems is known to be extremely difficult; methods have been adapted from other

African river environments for the rapid assessment of the potential of the Benishangul Gumuz

Rivers. The simplest of parameters, sought to directly relate fish catch with simple geographical

and morphological features of the rivers are mostly used to estimate the potential of rivers.

Direct assessment and /or survey in fishery is practically impossible, this is due to the nature of

the resource itself being found in a unique environment, and requests long time, high financial

input and skilled man power. In the absence of direct assessment data, applied an indirect ways

and methods for the estimation of the fishery potential of water bodies is crucial.

15

The simplest model of Welcomme (1976) relating catch and river length was used and the total

fish production potential of major rivers of the region (Abay, Anger, Beles, Dabus and Dedessa)

is estimated to be 2400 t/yr (below Table 3)

Table 3. Fish production potential of Abay, Anger, Beles, Dabus and Dedessa Rivers SN Name of River Location (Zone) Length of the

River (km)

Estimated

Catch(t/yr)

%

contribution

1 Abay Kamashi, Metekel, 710 1680 70

2 Anger Kamashi 89 26 1

3 Beles Metekel 210 147 6

4 Dabus Assosa 261 227 10

5 Dedesa Kamash, Assosa 310 320 13

Total

2400

The high potential river of the BGRS is Abay with an estimated potential of 1680

tons/year which covers 70% of the region‟s total potential. Anger contributes the lowest

potential among the rivers sampled in the region. This estimated potential did not include

the potential of the biggest Renaissance dam (1680Sq km), which will roughly estimated

to be 7628 tons/yr.

6. Annual fish production Fishes are produced from river Anger, Didessa, Dabus, Beles abay and other small rivers. Active

fishing has been done, where water are 10% of land-use and cover of the region (MoFedA,

2006).

Fishes are produced in the region from main river systems like Abay Anger, Didessa, Dabus,

Beles, and their tributaries (small rivers and streams). The catch has never been recorded

systematically and the reports of BoA towards the annual fish production are very low compared

to the fish consumed in the region that the group experienced in this field survey. The fishers,

consumers and small scale fish traders have been interviewed and consulted on the status of fish

production in the region.

According to the current estimates, river fisheries of Benishangul Gumuz region contribute about

24 percent of the potential to be produced from riverine fishery of the country, ca,10,000tons/yr.

Rivers however, play a role in many other fields of activity, particularly agriculture, power

generation with its accompanying dams and reservoirs, and industrial and domestic water use.

These activities conflict not only amongst themselves but, by modifying the ecosystem, interfere

with the maintenance of stocks of fish adequate for the support of fisheries. The rational

management of river basins should take the needs of each of the uses into account and the policy

decisions required depend upon the existence of an adequate informational base.

Rural household based socio-economic survey was conducted in twenty Woredas in the region in

2006 (MoFedA, 2006). The heads of the household (HHH) used in the sampling frame of this

16

survey were 3739 and distributed in all zones and all twenty Woredas. The survey indicated that

from sampled 150 Kebeles in 20 Woredas, 132 Kebeles used fish come from rivers. The survey

reveals that 70-83% of 20 Kebeles, 50-70% of 10 Kebeles and 10-45% of 19 Kebeles' population

had an access for fishing at the nearby rivers. The rest 22 Kebeles' population do not have

accessed for fishing.

Concerning the fish consumption, the above mentioned survey report indicated all the population

from two Kebeles of Mandura and Sirba Abay Woredas consumed fish. About 83% of the

population found in 36 kebeles of Maokomo, Guba, Bulen and Kemashi Woredas used fish for

food.

In Dangur, Debati, Belojiganfoy Woredas 40-71% of the 19 Kebeles' population consumed fish

and Nine Kebeles from Agelometi, Pawe, Komesha, Ada Godere, Asosa and Bambasi Woredas,

13-33% of population consume fish. This showed that the culture of the BG region to consume

fish is by far higher. In this region it is normal for a household to fish at least once in a week and

can get up to 5 kg of fish depending on the season, place of fishing and fishing gears to be used.

According to the respondents of this survey, the main fishing seasons are from November to

April for about 6 months in a year. The number of fishing HHs varied from Kebele to Kebele

and about 1527 HHs are known to involve in fishing. Each household comprises of 5.5 family

members who consume fish. Based on this data, it is estimated that a minimum of 183 tons of

fish is produced annually in different rivers of the region. As opposed to the other fishers of the

country, BGRS fishers used the fish mostly for home consumption unless and otherwise it is

beyond the capacity of the family to cook. Family members of typical full time fishers consume

an estimated amount of 22 kg of fish per annum per head.

According to this study, the level of exploitation of fish from the sampled rivers was

approximately only 8%. If the access to reach the rivers is possible and the necessary fishing

gears and other facilities are going to be fulfilled, the level of exploitation will increase and more

fish will come to the market.

The recorded fish production in the region increased through time from 3.6 tons in 1998 to 5 tons

in 2002 E.C (Fig 5). The BGRS five year Growth and Transformation Plan (2003-2007 E.C)

indicated that fish production should increase from 5 tons in 2002 to 15.3 tons by 2007 E.C. at a

growth rate of 25% every year. This plan should be revised and need to consider the production

potential of the rivers and the big Renaissance Dam as the current production potential

considered only in major rivers.

17

Figure 6 Annual fish production for the last five years (Source: Bureau of Agriculture, BGRS)

7. Fishing, fish handling and preservation

7.1. Fishers, fishing gears and fishing operation Riverine fisheries activity is exclusively traditional, highly seasonal in most water bodies and

restricted to drier months of the year. Any type of fish either scaled or not is consumed especially

by Gumuz and Bertha people. People inhabiting along the rivers of Anger, Dabus and Dedessa

rivers used to fish by locally made gears.

The most common fishing gears are: scoop net, different types of basket traps, seeds and leafs of

poisonous plants, spears, cast net, gill net and hook and line Mostly, fishing has done in group in

all areas. Depending on the distance of fishing area, fisher stayed 1-4 days in fishing. At Beles

River a group of farmers stayed half day. While at River Anger, Soge area farmers are going to

fishing in group which has up to 7 members and stayed 3-4 days in fishing and have-15-20 fishes

per person. The scope net and traps are used o at small rivers when the flow rate is low.

The number of fishing gears and methods observed in the region are listed below.

1. Scoop net or Reed sieves: It is made from locally available material, by twisting and

making 0.5 to 2 cm mesh size with a frame diameter of 0.90-1.5 m, a frame depth of

0.30-0.50 m. It is mostly without handle. Now day, women made reed sieves from worn

out mosquito net.

The fishermen use by making fence over the river with a small opening and continuously

place the scoop net in front of the opening and scoop up the fish. Due to its easiness in

Fish production trend

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Year (E.C.)

Pro

du

cti

on

(Q

t)

18

handling, it is often used by women and children. Women fish small fishes at the stagnant

part of the river directly

2. Spears: The spear is used to spear the fish after the fisher have spotted it. They used two

different types of metal spears for hunting and fish. Their designs are different to suit the

fish targets. Spear used for fishing has a length of about 1-2 m, of which 20-40 cm is the

sharp point.

Figure 7. Tip of fishing spear

3. Hook/'Janjeli'/: Hooks are commonly used fishing gear. Imported different size hooks

are available at different town such as Bamasi, Chagni and Bamza. Theses hooks are

attached with 4 to 6 m long monofilament line. Fishers around Bamza area of Guba

Woreda used largest hooks so as to catch bigger fishes. The price of fish hooks differs

depending on the place and hook size: The hook is baited with the preferred bait such as

mollusk shell, small fishes, flowers and worms.

Table 4 Fishing hooks price at different Woredas

Woreda/Gear type Bambasi Mandura Chagni Guba/Bamza

Small size hooks without line 2.50-3.00 - 1.5 0.85 (#6)*

Small size hooks with line 6.00-10.00 4.00-8.00 -

Hooks with out line big size - - - 1.10 (#12)*

4. Stupefacient or poison plants: The group informed that the fishermen uses naturally

occurring poison plants to catch fish deadly or unconscious. It is one of traditional

method widely used for fishing. The poison is prepared from crushed seed of Birbira tree

or crushed bark of local tree called 'Bitsa'. Currently in Metekel zone fishers come from

the highland areas used poisonous chemicals (insecticides and herbicides) dangerous for

the whole aquatic animals. These fishers want to kill all kind of fish in the water body

and harvest at a time for dry fish market. Poisoning with killer agricultural chemicals is

seasonal and occurred mostly during fasting seasons.

19

Figure 8 Locally used poisoning plant

5. Basket Traps: Traps are mainly made of lowland bamboo with different modifications.

The “Gambudi” has cylindrical cone shape like hives (Fig 7a) with different sizes. It has

small opening circle (about 20 cm) where the fish enters at wider side of traps. The

“Bichuwa” trap is opened cone shaped basket (Fig 7b). During this study the size of

sampled “Gambudi” has 100 cm length and 40 cm width at its outer and 20 cm at its

inner circle. The “Bichwa” is 140 cm long and 30 cm wide at its base. Farmers used a

bunch or cluster of sorghum for the attraction of fish, but most of them use non-baited.

a) Gambudi (side and front view)

20

b) Bichuwa

Figure 9. Basket traps

6. Cast nets: The net is casted over the water and catches the fish by enclosing them. Once

the fish are enclosed and entangled the net with fish is going to be withdrawn by pulling

the handling rope attached to it. These nets are cast by hand only from shore, in waist-

deep water and its use is limited to shallow waters bodies. Some practice is needed for

handling this gear effectively. Casting calls for perfectly coordinated movements of

body, legs and arms. They made the net entirely by hand from plant fibers by twisting

and rarely from twines that extracted from car tyre. If the cast net used on uneven

riverbed with many obstacles, the net needs regular up keep and many repairs. In this

case, it may last less than six months. But if used in waters without obstacles it can serve

for more than one year.

The sampled cast net made at Metekel Zone Prisoner's Camp Administration Office has a

mesh size of 4 cm; a frame diameter of 350 cm and twine size of the yarn is 210d/3. The

price of a single cast net is about 250 EtBr.

7. Boats: At lower basin of Abay River, where the water makes stables they use different

size excavated /dig out/ wooden boats, mainly used for transportation (crossing the river).

The size of the boats ranges from 4 to 8 m long. Such boats are also available at River

Dedessa and Dabus . The papyrus type boats are used at Beles Rivers for fishing.

Improved fishing gears

Improved/modern fishing gears such as gillnets and long lines were introduced in different

Woredas but in small quantity. The people lived at Ethio-Sudan boarder areas have access to

purchase gillnets and hooks.

In Metekel Zone, Guba Woreda, at Arenja Kebele and Bamza Kebele local people used gillnets

and hooks for fishing. The length of gillnets are short not more than 20 m, with mesh size of 7

to14cm. Fishing has been done twice a day; morning and afternoon. Long line fishing is also

performed parallel to gill net fishing.

In Sirba Abay Woreda, Chesiga Kebele fishers cooperative is used motorized boat with 4

gillnets of 50 m. The 3 m length this fiber glass boat has 25 Hp out board engine which is

supported by regional government this year. From economic point of view, using 25 Hp engine

21

with 4 gillnets will not be feasible due to the high fuel consumption of the engine. In addition,

the Dabus Fishing Cooperative of Bambasi Woreda used 3 gillnets and hooks donated from an

agriculture investor who has a farm near the area. The Saydalecha Livestock Development

Cooperative of Belojiganfoy Woreda bought only one 100 m long gillnet.

Improved gears are supplied by individuals in Metekel Zone Prisoner's Camp Administration

Office. The prisoners produced gillnet and cast nets in sufficient quality and quantity. The 20 m

long with 1.70 m deep gillnet and 3.5 m frame diameter cast net costs EtBr 470 and 250

respectively. The assembled gillnet has locally made lead sinker but it has no floater. The

importance of floater is less in short nets as the upper edge of the net can easily stretched using

rope. This camp is a good source of fishing gears, however the net makers still requires trainings

to produce high quality standard gillnets and cast nets.

While the fishers are willing to accept and use Modern fishing gears (gillnets and boats). They

do not have the chance to get such fishing gears and other necessary equipments. The reasons

given by the fishers includes the high capital cost of the gears, recurring and replacement costs of

the nets and the inability to convert the new opportunities into profits (i.e., lack of forward and

backward linkages to support the activity).

In general, there is lack of some technical skills and the essential gears for catching fish.

Fishers‟ cooperatives should be further strengthened and supported. There is a need for a

stronger extension effort with provision of technical and material assistance.

Considering the improvement of traditional fishing gears, some can be replaced by modern gears

like cast nets and gillnets. Cast nets (made from nylon twine) are best suited for shallow, block

free bottom and the fish are sufficiently concentrated to give a good chance for capture. The

mesh size can be adjusted according to species and size of target fish. Gillnets are also suitable

and effective gears in the large stretch of open stagnant water in some parts of the rivers. But it

cannot be operated in strong flows. In some slow moving water areas, such as the confluence of

Abay with Dabus and Dedessa and lower Abay channel as well as rivers that flows in flat plains

can deploy efficient gears i.e. gill net and seine net.

7.2. Fish Handling and curing

The fish utilization varies depending on the ethnic groups. The same to Gambella Region, urban

areas are composed of different ethnic groups. Fish is highly consumed by the native people,

specifically Gumuz and Berta. On the other hand, the highlanders do not well accustom.

The mode of utilization is in fresh, sun dried and fry-dried form. All types of fish and all its parts

except the gut and scales are consumed. Fresh fish handling is poor and unhygienic. After catch,

whole fishes are transported on foot or by donkey. Fishes in fresh and dried form are displayed in

many of the local market places during marketing days. Due to the small quantity of fish, it will

not stay for long time at market.

At Ayma River, large amount of well dried fish is harvested and marketed to Sudan. While in

Anger River /Sogie area/, farmers are marketed half- fried fish to Sogie town. The fishes are

22

going to be gutted and put on fire for short time to dry to prolog the shelf life. No other

preservation known in this area. With this condition, fish will be easily contaminated and loses

its quality and finally become spoiled. The local high temperature will aggravate the situation.

The storage life of fresh fish depends mainly on the environmental temperature, the size of the

fish, the catching methods used and time of catch. The small fish spoiled fast with in half day,

while large fish can stay up to one day keeping other parameters constant. This storage life can

be prolonged by using ice immediately and kept in ice by 6 to 12 times and 7 to 21 times for

small and large fish, respectively (FAO, 1988). Most of the marketed fish in the region is large

fish (more than a kilogram) and it has a day shelf life. Fish grading is done based only on size

and fish species. The preferred species and larger sized fish cost more.

The handling of fresh fish should be improved by creating awareness on the fish handling and

quality among producers and consumers, and facilitating/providing the necessary infrastructures.

The improvement of fresh and dried fish handling

The main sources of post harvest loss found to be poor handling and processing. The usual

means of improving the shelf-life is sun drying. It is done simply on the ground resulting in high

contamination of fish with soil, sand and different microorganisms and it consequence high

losses and health risks. Even though no study has been conducted on the magnitude of post

harvest losses in the country, in Lake Turkana it is estimated to be 60% of the total product

(FAO, 2008). The quality of dried fish can be improved using the following techniques; drying

fresh on wire mesh placed above the ground and protected against flies. Fish should be placed on

racks which are positioned at one meter or above the ground where solar radiation and worm air

currents can evaporate water from fish. Improved method such as solar drying (using tent drier)

can be used for shortening duration and to have better quality. Solar drying is more effective and

efficient than open drying. In addition, solar dried fish products have higher quality, with

significantly less sand and soil; have firm texture, fresh fish odor, and an extended shelf-life of

over six months. Therefore, in the development program solar tent drier should be introduced for

better quality products and incomes.

8. Fish consumption and marketing 8.1. Fish Production and Consumption

Despite the abundant fish resources in the surveyed areas, fish products in any form are very

rarely found in market places including hotels and restaurants. Before explaining the prevailing

situation about the marketed surplus (supply), we need to briefly examine the current producers

and fish production.

The social and economic importance of fish production in the region can be explained by the

different types of producers engaged in fishing in riverine fisheries. Based on their fishing

methods, equipments and their purpose of fishing, fish producers in surveyed areas can be

categorized in to two major groups.

These are:

23

1. Indigenous people who catch fish using traditional fishing gears and used primarily

for household consumptions.

From ancient times, fishery has been a tradition especially for Gumuz and Berta peoples.

It plays a critical role in sustaining rural livelihoods in maintaining local and regional

food security, and a safety net for many rural poor households in the region. It is also the

simplest and easiest means to maintain livelihoods of the poor, with little or almost zero

investment required.

Fishing for this group of people is mainly subsistence based on the main rivers and flood

plain. It is generally traditional, simple and made of local materials. These fishing gears

are easily repaired with local parts, and represent a very low capital investment, their fish

capture techniques are both low and energy consumers.

They use fish in their daily diets and virtually every family living alongside the rivers

supplement its diet with fish. The major rain season is June to October. During this time

the river level becomes high and fishing is very difficult. Therefore, fishing activity

decreases during those months (June to October) and increases then after. As a result of

this the community concentrates in fishing for certain seasons of the year. The

communities tend to be dynamic with the proportional importance of different activities

changing from season to season in response to changing ecological and other

circumstantial conditions. Therefore, fishing tends to intensify as the dry season

progresses or it occurs during down turns in agricultural and other activities. It is

combined with the range of activities including rain feed agriculture, livestock

management and hunting.

Even in times of good harvest, they prefer to preserve fish for their future consumptions

and sometimes they supplied to the nearby markets. Each fish species has specific local

name, which indicate us that indigenous people's livelyhood on one or the other way

closley tied with fishing activity.

According to MoFedA (2006), on average 60.71 % of households surveyed from

Woredas consumed fish. Mandura and Sirba Abay Woredas are the highest fish

consumers (100 %). The difference observed in production and consumption level in

targeted areas are due to cultural and accessibility difference. However, the survey report

did not show the potential production and consumption level of the surveyed areas.

2. Formal and informal co-operatives who catch fish using relatively modern methods

and equipments and supply their products to the near-by markets. The study team

has contacted four cooperatives who are currently engaged in fish production and

marketing.

All members are not active participants, engaged in fishing as a part time job and lack

appropriate skills and equipments. The purpose of their fishing is to supply and sell fresh

fish to their proximate market as a source of additional income to support their families.

This group of people or type of producers can also be taken as important groups in the

future development of fishery in the region provided all necessary measures will be taken

to increase their number optimally and increase their capacity.

24

The total amount of fish production in the region is estimated to be 5 ton in 2002 E.C.

Therefore, the annual average per capita consumption of the region is negligible. Early

documents of FAO (1990) indicated that the national per capita fish consumption is 0.21

kg/person/yr and in fish producing areas of Ethiopia is estimated at 8.5 kg/person/yr. Whereas,

the current survey confirms that the per capita fish consumption of the people living in the region

is 22 kg/person/yr. As fish is eaten most nearest its sources of supply, peoples living in the

region in general and in the study areas in particular consume fish far above the previous

estimates.

8.2. Supply of fish

Fisher cooperatives in the surveyed areas are relatively the one who are commercially oriented

and supply whole fresh fish to the urban market. Lemlem Fisher cooperatives to whom the study

team has contacted in Pawe Woreda explained that Gelgel Beles and Abat Beles are the major

rivers from which they fish and supply to the urban markets. According to one of the senior

members who has been fishing for the last 35 years responded that setting Chineese cast net for

three times a day can caught 20 to 45 fish/day from river Abat Beles. The Bamza fisher

cooperative used gillnets smuggled from Sudan. It supplies fish to Bamza village. Nile perch is

the preferred fish which fetches higher price. The average amount of sell per individual is 50 to

100 EtBr per day. The price of fish depends on species and size of the fish i.e. 80, 50 and 25

EtBr for big, medium and small sized fish respectively.

When the fish supply is evaluated in all areas under study, the supply of fish in each market is

very low and during survey the team observed an imbalance between demand and supply. The

supply of fish in the market is fluctuating in terms of amount as well as time to deliver. In

addition there is also poor transportation facility which exposed the harvested fish for spoilage.

Fish drying is most common when the production of fish is surplus over the demand. All fishers

in the region used wooden sticks and human head for transporting fish to their near market areas.

8.3. Cost of production and Price of the product As it was mentioned earlier, the major fish producer and supplier to the market are fishers

cooperatives. The fish markets in the study areas are characterized by high level of quantity

demanded and low level of quantity supplied. This prevailing situation in the market causes the

consumers with less bargaining power forced to accept the price set by the producers.

In the urban market where fish is rarely supplied, the sellers (producers) 1st set the price and

negotiate with customers until agreement reached between them. This price is expected to benefit

more of the producers than the customers because of low supply and high demand for the

product. The contrary holds true in landing sites and village market in that producers sell at

lower price due to the fact that marketing infrastructures such as road and transport facilities are

not available to supply whole fish to the urban markets as fresh and as quickly as possible.

Moreover, because there is no market information exchange system, producers prefer to sell at

landing sites and near-by markets.

Because the producers do not have any recording system to register their day to day activities,

they do not know and consider their production costs in fish price setting. Depending on location

and production or supply seasons the price of fresh fish varies ranging from 20 EtBr to 25 EtBr

25

for small sized fish bundled 3 in one, 40 EtBr to 50 EtBr for medium size and 70 EtBr to 80 EtBr

for large size fish such as Nile perch.

8.4. Current Fish Market and Marketing Systems

There is gap between the supply and demand for fish, which is basically resulted from two

phenomena i.e. in the supply side; lack of fishing gears to produce more fish, accessible market

for procuring and supplying already existing marketable surplus and also for encouraging

marketable fish production. In the demand side, there exists inconsistent fish product.

Proximity and access are the most limiting factors in the pricing and market choices for

perishable fish products. Many rural producers have no access to the existing market of urban

consumers due to limited and inadequate road transport infrastructure. Therefore, fish products

are wasted in the field and producers are forced to sell the fish to local consumers at lowest price.

Table 5 Fish market distance from major production areas

No Name of

Rivers

Location

Woreda

Fish Market

Towns

Estimated distance

(Km) from Production

site to Town

Remark

1 Abay River Sirba Abay Koncho Town 16 km to Koncho Road accessed (Dry

weather)

2 Dabus River Bambasi Bambasi Town 6 km from Bambasi Road accessed

3 Dedesa River Kemashi Kemashi Town 33 km from Kamashi

Road accessed

4 Anger River Belojiganfoy Sogie Town 30-35 km to Sogie No access road

5 Beles River Pawe Pawe and Beles 3-7 km Accessed road

Current Fish Demand

Despite considerably high potentials, local fish production has failed to meet the local demand.

In all surveyed Woredas and Kebeles, the study team has contacted and interviewed peoples

from non-government and government employees, hotel and restaurant owners and other peoples

representing different social group to find out indications of demand for the product which will

help in analyzing the potential demand for fish in the future.

Potential buyers for a product or service have four characteristics; interest, income, access and

qualifications. To assess fish market, the survey team first must estimate the number of

consumers who have an interest in eating fish. To do this, the study team contacted some

26

consumers and asked the following question: "Do you have an interest in buying and eating

fish?". Out of the total number of employees and respondents from different social group almost

all responded "yes". The reasons of their interest vary from person to person depending on the

educational back ground of the respondents. The reasons for their interest are also vary among

employees both from government and from non-government organization depending on their

professional status.

Based on the above facts we might conclude that 95 % of the total consumer would constitute the

potential market for fish. However, consumer interest alone is not enough to define the fish

market. Potential consumers must have enough income to afford the product. They must be able

to answer yes to the question: “can you afford to buy fish at prevailing market price?” From the

total respondents some of them said they do not know the fish selling price because fish is not

available in their area and other respondents answered yes and no respectively.

There is also a seasonal variation in demand among respondents which is very important to

estimate the potential fish demand and plan the corresponding supply (production). 35 % of

respondents from orthodox Christian religion said they want to eat fish throughout the year

except during fasting period. The rest of respondents from the same religion are consumers of

fish throughout the year including fasting period. Respondents from non-orthodox religion said

they consume fish the whole year depending on the prevailing selling price and their income.

Although, all restaurant owners dramatically have no any access for fish supply in the market,

they have a request from their customers. They totally have no experience of preparing any kind

of fish food. To satisfy their customer needs and to increase their income all hotel and restaurants

owner demand fish in the market.

8.5. Prospects of Consumption and Demand

Based on the results of the Rural Household Based Socio-economic Survey Report (MoFedA,

2006), peoples living in the region obtain and consume fish in two ways. These are through

production and purchasing. The first way of fish access accounts for about 32.67 % (219,166) of

total population (670,848) in the Region. These people are living in rural areas where they are

proximate to any one of the river. The rest or 67.33 % (451,682) of the population are rural

people who are not engaged in fishing due to their residential location and other factors and

urban dwellers.

On the other hand, according to the above mentioned report, fish consuming people in the area

constitute 52.63 % (353,068) of total population including the above 32.67 % of producers and

consumers, the remaining 47.37 % (317,781) of people are urban dwellers and rural people who

do not consume fish throughout the year.

Consumption of fish at present and in the future, therefore, has three level consumptions:

consumption of fish producers, of non-producers (rural) and of those in urban centers.

Households of fish producers consumed more fish per annum compared to urban areas.

27

As demands are defined as human wants that are backed by buying power (Philip Kotler and

Gary Armstrong, 1996), the latter groups are important for future development of marketing. It

does not, however, mean that the first group is not important in fish marketing development as

the current and future trends of this group play a significant role in over all fishery development.

A growing population means a growing human need to satisfy. Depending on purchasing power,

it may also mean growing market opportunities.

There will be a rising demand for fish in the future because of population growth, income growth

and urbanization. Assuming that the region‟s past 10 years average population growth of 3 %

will continue in the future, with other factors which affect consumption and demand for fish like

purchasing power and urbanization increases, total fish consumption expected to grow by 3 %

per annum in the future.

9. Fishers cooperatives

Four fishermen cooperatives are formed in four Woredas in the region. Some are organized by

themselves and others are supported by the respective Woreda Cooperative Promotion Offices.

However, all are not legalized yet.

Chesega Kebele Fishermen Cooperative

In Sirba Abay Woreda, the newly formed Chesega Kebeles Fishers Cooperative has 27

members; among them 8 of them are women. They do have one fiberglass boat with 25

Hp outboard engines and four gillnets (50 m length each) and 15 hook. The current total

capital is EtBr 4050. Fishing is an additional activity for some members as they are also

engaged in gold mining, hoe farming and trading.

Fish is supplied mainly to Chesega Village which is located one km from landing site at

Abay River. This Kebele has about 873 house hold heads. They are not yet started to

supply the nearest promising market of Koncho town found at a distance of 2 hrs on foot.

The distribution of profit among the members varies depending on the factors such as the

number of members, how much they earn monthly and how much members of the family

actively involved in fishing.

The sex composition of the all cooperatives is dominated by male. In case of the Chesega

Kebele Fishers Cooperative, women shares 42% of the total number. The duties of

women are transporting fish from landing site to village and prepared for market. This is

because of the traditional belief that carrying goods are not allowed to men. Therefore,

the contributions of them are crucial for the sustainability of the cooperatives.

Say Dalecha Livestock Production Cooperative

In Belojiganfoy Woreda, the multipurpose cooperative has been established in 2009 with

a capital of EtBr 13,200. This Berta Ethnic group cooperative has 11 members and all of

them are doing livestock rearing activities including beekeeping. Therefore, it is not

strongly involving in fishing. In addition, it is suffered by lack of fishing gears. It has

28

only one gillnet and locally made fishing hooks. The gill net is no longer in use as it is

damaged by the crocodiles while fishing. Fishing has done in Anger River, which is far

from farmer's village at Fuafuate Kebele (it takes 1:30 hrs on foot). Fishing is performed

for short period during February to April.

Figure 10 Members of the cooperative

Lemlem fishermen cooperative

This cooperative is formed in 2010 in Pawe Woreda. It is not organized as an actual

cooperative, but fisher group. All members are fishing together at River Abat Beles for

their safety from crocodiles attack and the catch belongs to respective gillnet owner.

It has totally 13 members. All members have 20 m long gillnet each and some hooks.

While they are fishing during off farm activities, intensive fishing is done specially

during the Orthodox Christian fasting seasons.

Bamza fishers cooperative

In Guba Woreda, Bamza town, the newly formed Bamza Fishers Cooperative has 22

members. Each member contributed EtBr 300 for purchasing 3 gillnets, dig-out boats and

different sized hooks. The fishing site is at River Abay below Renaissance dam, where

the river is stable and suitable for long gillnets. There is promising fish market in Bamza

town and Renaissance Dam construction camps.

Generally, all cooperatives are not legalized and their constraints are highlighted below.

Both the existed cooperatives are not as such strong in overall fishing activities. They

have no regular fishing and auditing practice. The marketing activity is done initially in

primary markets near the landing sites and in rare cases they sale fish at towns.

Some cooperatives have serious market problems in relation to poor transportation

facilities. In addition to this lack of fishing gears at local market hindered from harvesting

sufficient quantity. They have few numbers of improved fishing gears, which are not

proportional to the member of cooperatives and the abundant fish resources. Due to

scarcity of fishing gears locally, they cannot replace or increase their gears sufficiently.

29

The transportation problem is serious in areas where most cooperatives are found and

they try to solve this problem by developing their strategy. In far area they used

preservation system such as preparing gutted and fried fish which will prolong the shelf

life.

All cooperatives do not have trend of record keeping of daily fish harvest or any

periodical pattern but only the value of the harvest. They sale fish in number and do not

used weighting balanced.

Table 6. Profile of fisher cooperatives and their capital (2003E.C.)

No Cooperative Name Members Address

Year of

Establi

shed

/E.C/

Capital

/Cash/

M* F* Total Woreda Kebele EtBr Remark

1 Chesega Kebele

Fishers Cooperative 19 8 27

Sirba

Abay Chesega 2003 4,050.00

Asset

6 m long polyester

boat with 25Hp out

board engine, 15

hooks, 4 gillnets

2

Say Dalecha

Livestock Production

Cooperative

11 0 11 Belojiganf

oy Fuafuate 2002 13,200.00

Only one 100 m long

gill net

3 Lemlem Fishers

Cooperative 13 0 13 Pawe

Mender 4

(Almu F/

Selam)

2002 2,600.00 Every member has a

gillnet

4 Bamza Kebele

Fishers cooperative 22 0 22 Guba

Bamza

town 2003 6,600.00

Total 65 8 73 4 28,450.00

M=male F=Female

10. Aquaculture/Fishery investment As of the other regions of the country, investment in fisheries and aquaculture is insignificant

and even at its infant stage in BG region. The only integrated investment started in Bambasi

Woreda around Dabus River. The investor received 20 ha (out of which 4 ha is for pond) of land

for an integrated fish farming with a capital of 1.5 million EtBr in 2001 E.C.

Prior to the establishment of the biggest pond, the investor constructed a starting pond with size

of 40 m by 16 m. The pond has stocked with catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and tilapia

(Oreochromis niloticus) collected from Dabus River. However, there is no proper follow up and

management due to lack of knowhow on fish farming. There is no technical support from the

concerned Regional institutions to be given for the investor.

30

The region has enormous fisheries and aquaculture investment opportunities. Dams built for

irrigation and other purposes can directly be used for fish production. The temperature of most

parts of the BG region is warmer which is very good to produce Nile tilapia and other tropical

fishes. The other opportunity is the establishment of the renaissance dam where a number of

cages can be fixed.

11. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) Since 2007, more than thirty International and National NGOs have been involving in the

implementation of development projects in the region addressing different issues. Their project

ideas focus on agriculture, education, health/HIV-AIDS, water supply and sanitation. The

individual project budget ranges from 0.2 to 16 million EtBr.

Among these enormous NGOs, no one is specifically or integratively involved in fisheries and

aquaculture development. It is only the governmental organizations, mainly Bureau of

Agriculture who is providing some fishing gears donated from elsewhere. A boat with 25 HP

engine, and 4 gillnets donated from unknown charities, has been provided for Chesega Fishers

Association Private Limited via Bureau of Agriculture.

The involvement is not pertinent and rarely seen focused only on training few fishers and

supplying traditional fishing gears like wooden (log) boat and hooks. The support is not well

organized so that the fishers could not benefit from the support.

Most NGOs lack systematic and integrative approaches and rules to be followed for rural

development and fail to consider the local peoples‟ needs to address the critical problems. It

seems that NGOs never consult appropriate governmental institutions and the services provided

by them are not integrative so that they could not bring change.

12. Institutional support for the fisheries Sector

The lack of institutional support for river fisheries, coordination of ongoing activities and

planning for development of the sector are among the major constraints. In addition, the other

constraints are lack of credit facilities to finance fishing operations and fishing gear suppliers. Institutionally, the development of fisheries is under the mandate of the Bureau of Agriculture, Extension

Process. The sector is not process is not adequately staffed in the process. The personnel lack

proper direction and supervision, adequate technical training, experience and a sustained job

interest. In addition due to hardship conditions in the area and lack of adequate logistical support,

it is difficult to provide useful development and extension support for the benefit of fishers. The

current restructuring of BoA did not consider the fishery terms of references. The development

agents should be from indigenous people to avoid poor understanding between the fisheries

officers and the fishers due to language barriers and tribal, religious and cultural differences.

31

13. The potential contribution of fisheries to development

objectives The excact contribution of the fishery subsector to the achievment of regional development

objectives is poorly documneted. The current level of information is summarized below.

a) Nutrition and Food Security

Fish is one of the historical widespread and significant diets in the region especially for Gumuz

and Berta peoples. Along the rivers per capita consumption of fish amongst these peoples is

about 22 kg/person/yr.

Fishes are of special significance for food security in the region, as most of the fish caught is

going to be consumed domestically mostly by local communities. Fishers sell their catch at local

markets after satisfy their needs. Fish catch provides high quality animal protein crucial in

providing balanced diets for the rural people.

In terms of nutrition and food security therefore, fishery is abundantly clear that fish production

constitutes one of the nutrition and food security commodities in region. This is mainly because

Fish is the primary and secondary cheapest source of food/ protein supply among Berta

and Gumuz people in the region

Fish is available throughout the year, in times of drought or other protein sources are in

short supply; and

Fish is accessible to vast majority of people, especially who lives on the course of river

banks.

b) Poverty alleviation and employment opportunity

The river fishery could offer several opportunities to support the rural community. It creates

employment opportunity for members of the society and few alternative income generating

opportunities. Its importance from the perspective of fisheries development planning is that

small scale fish trading provides a low capital and subsistence level of employment for youths

which intern helps them to increase saving and continue their education.

In addition to these, the potential contribution of the river fisheries to the achievement of

regional development objectives includes;

Alleviation of poverty

Economic growth for private sector including hotels and restaurants

Source of sustainable income

Improve the health status of the society by providing high quality protein.

14. Constraints for the development of the sub-sector The study has identified the following major development constraints with respect to economic

growth and sustainable natural resource utilization.

32

a) Weak institutional capacity

Absence of fishery structure at all level. In additions, high turnover of fishery staff and

transfer of staff to other assignment frequently;

Lack of uniform qualification and competence of Woreda Office of Agriculture recruited

by different Woredas.

Lack of knowledge and skill among fishery extension experts and Development Agents.

Most of them has no background in fishery and the offices have no short term and long

term training program on fisheries;

Inadequate funding to fishery;

Lack of effective extension services and institutional weakness to support fishers;

Absence of research on water resources, including fish, in the region.

Lack of attention and underestimate by policy makers towards resources and utilization.

b) Under utilized fish resource

Lack of basic fishery data on the magnitude of fish stocks on all water bodies to guide

management decisions. And there is no data on limnology of the aquatic systems to

facilitate understanding of potential different water bodies to produce fish.

Limited technological innovations to ensure easy access to all types of exploitable stocks,

reduce post harvest losses, and increase enterprise productivity. This means

o there is inadequate/absence of fishing gear supply,

o Inadequate technological know-how on fish handling

o Weak fish market due to poor consumption habit among urban dwellers.

c) Fish quality assurance and marketing system constrains

Poor handling of fresh and dried fish along the distribution chain mainly due to lack of

handling facilities. Fresh fish is highly perishable and the surrounding hot climate with

improper handling and preservation aggravates fish quality deterioration and leads to

high spoilage rate.

Absences of strong fish trader or/and fishermen cooperative that collects fish from

different sites.

Lack of transport facilities from landing site to market.

Lack of capital: lack of credit facilities to fishers and fish dealers and lack of good

business management practice have hindered their operations.

d) Lack of attention in fishery for fishers' community development

Fisher communities lack skills in planning, appropriate technology, environmental and

business management, including culture of saving for investment; the communal tradition

hindered from saving. The majority of fishing communities have remains poor mainly

due to lack of capability to effectively participate in the subsector;

Women in fishing communities do not have appropriate organization and technical

support for their domestic, economical and social activities.;

Women participation in fish production activities limited to area and season because of

the natural conditions. At processing and marketing levels their entry is restricted by lack

of capital, extension and administrative support;

Poorly structured and inefficient fishers cooperatives. Some cooperatives are existed

virtually. They have no strong and series fishing activities; and

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Lack of attention by regional government to support fishermen cooperative.

15. Issues and interventions/actions The current fish production is at its subsistence level and the catches sold in the markets are

insignificant. Production can increase from rivers near to the market areas.

According to the preliminary results of this resource survey, it is possible to produce 2400 tons

of fish in a year from Abay, Anger, Beles, Dabus, and Dedesa Rivers. If 50% of the potential is

going to be exploited by 2007, it is possible to produce 66 times more fish than set in the 5 years

Growth and Transformation Plan.

However, this can be achieved when the delivery of extension service towards fisheries and

aquaculture gets better, Modern fishing gears are going to be availed, consistent fish marketing

system is going to be developed and investors are going to be encouraged.

In general, the following issues are identified as priority development interventions:

Prioritized fishery areas/waters

Depending on the sizes, the fishery resource available and their values and contribution to local

and regional socio-economic development the following main rivers are identified as a priority

area for development interventions in the Region.

1. Abay River

2. Anger River

3. Dabus River

4. Beles (Abat and Glgel) River

5. Dedessa River

The success of fisheries sector depends on the target development interventions to be employed.

In this respect, the following development interventions are very crucial;

A. Villagization and fishery development

The Benshangul-Gumuz Regional Government is implementing villageization program, to

resttle farmers/peasants into centralized villages where the water is available. The objective of

this water centered villageization is to introduce improved technology and infrastructure for

ensuring food security and change the lifestyle of native ethnic groups.

Accordingly, some villages (Table 7) will be established near large rivers such as Abay, Anger,

Beles, Dabus, Dedesa, and Ayma Rivers, where they will access fish from it.

The participants of villageization are all native people who are using fish resources for

subsistence.

34

Table 7 Villageization and number of people participated

No River Village Population Distance

from river

to village

Woreda Near town market Remark

1 Abbay Yarenja 1729 0.5 Guba Mankushi

Bamza 250 1 Guba Mankushi

Fangus 106 Guba Mankushi

Dancho Abbay 135 5 Agelo Mankushi

Chesega 1729 1.5 Srba Abay Koncho

ZamiDbus 1603 15 Srba Abay Koncho

Papararo 2021 25 Srba Abay Shrkol 45km

Adenkish 201 - Srba Abay Shrkol 45km

Bekasa 110 - Srba Abay - -

Payabala 91 - Srba Abay -

Debi aregam 94 - Yaso Yaso 65km

Debi gurcha 117 2 Yaso Yaso -

Begondi 729 - Wombera

Melkan 210 - Wombera

2 Beles Jadiya 554 - Guba Makushi 31km

Bamijnda/belshi 956 - Guba 41km

3 Ayma Ayneshmish 167 - Guba Makushi 95

Omedla 295 - Guba Makushi 105

4 Dedesa Dedesameti 278 5 Agelomet Qorqameti 95km

Murkameti 266 3 Agelomet Qorqameti -

Qeresa 123 - Aglomet Aglomet 35km

Qutela 95 - Aglomet Aglomet 40km

Qobibedesa 147 2 Kamash Kamash 12km

Jalloleqa 235 5 Kamash Kamash 18

5 Dabus Dabus 300 1 Bamabassy Bamabassy 5km

MustaDabus 250 1.5 Bamabassy Bamabassy 7km

Keshmabo 400 4 Bamabassy Bamabassy 10km

6 Anger Angershenkora 319 - Bello Sogi -

Angerwaja 794 -- Bello Sogi 25km

Source: BoA, BGRS

B. Awareness Creation

Due to the absence of fishery data, the nutrition and economic importance of fishery to the local

people and policy makers is not well known. It is manifested by neglecting the resource during

planning and implementation of development. In addition, fish food is not well supplied in the

local restaurants and hotels, because most urban settlers are came from outside region and they

are not accustomed to eat fish. Therefore, fish consumption is limited to local indigenous people.

To improve this, creating awareness on its nutritional importance is very crucial. The approach to

do this is to integrate fisheries extension with the general agricultural extension, public health

education, and home economics. This is considered very essential as the fishery development

program will help for the existing society as source of income, high quality food and

employment. This will require fish consumption promotion and can for example be achieved

through launching „consumption promotion program‟ in selected fish consumption potential

towns and villages. The program should demonstrate and present different fish recipes to fish

35

day participants. In this manner fish preparation and consumption will take root within the wider

urban communities.

In addition, through training program there is a need for creation of awareness on the benefits of

the sector, advantages and disadvantages of different catching methods, processing,

transportation and storage. Accordingly, it is also advisable to provide training for trainers. This

should be a continuous process until such time when people become quite familiar.

C. Facilitation of gear supplies

Scarcity of fishing gears is a national problem. It will be difficult to access in the region unless

supported by government or other development partners. The fishers have to use improved

fishing gears to have constant supply and increased their income. There is an initiation of making

gillnts and cast net at Metekel Prisenors Camp Administration Office. There should be technical

support to improve their skills to supply sufficient and appropriate fishing gears. The office will

become center of excellence for supplying fishing gears.

D. Organizing fishermen cooperative

Commercial fishing is by its very nature a group activity. Working in association or group

provides ground for collective responsibility for protecting the fish stocks, and for building trust

(collateral) for credit access, and bargaining power in buying and selling fishery inputs and

outputs in bulk quantities and at favorable prices. Through cooperative, other services can be

channeled to members and surrounding communities.

The current cooperatives are weak; some of them are multipurpose which are not focused on the

continuous fishing. They need strengthen in terms of financial capacity and fish handling.

Organizing and supporting cooperatives in fisheries may fall under the joint responsibility of the

offices of agriculture and cooperative promotion. Special attention should be given to the current

established but not legalized cooperatives, which should be an example for others.

E. Facilitating access to credit

Improved gears are not only limited in availability but also they are costly. So, easy access to

local credit facilities should be arranged for fishers who want to use the recommended gears.

Gears to be introduced and used by fishers through credit be rewarding so that fisheries

development can be sustainable. Revolving funds for fisheries development may be availed

through NGO development assistance, which some of them are now distributing some type of

gears.

F. Capacity building through training

The Regional BoA has no extension staffs who have adequate knowledge or skill to deal with the

various and complex issues of the river and reservoir fisheries in the area. It is necessary to

recruit trained fishery professional to work as an extension worker at various levels. Local

individuals who are interested to engage in fishing require knowledge and skills about the

36

improved technologies and practices they will apply. Particularly training on fishing techniques,

net making, setting, fish handling of fish after landing, and processing of fish to different forms,

and preparation of fish dish or recipes will be important. Staff training may be provided by

Agricultural Extension Directorate, MoA and then, fishers will be trained at the local level by the

trained regional and Woreda fishery experts.

G. Infrastructure support

Small-scale facilities at main fish marketing towns are required. The accessible landing site

should be suitable to bring fishers and traders together for daily fish transaction. New potential

sites should be established and facilitated by constructing simple shed to protect the caught fish

from solar heat pending transfer/first sale, fish cleaning and selling shade at market/town, storage

and transport facilities.

Gradually, these infrastructures will facilitate fish handling, marketing and distribution of fish

products. The regional government is responsible to provide the necessary infrastructure and

extension either directly or through fishery project assistance.

H. Promoting entrepreneurship in fish trade

Fish caught in small quantities can directly be sold to consumers by the individual fishermen

themselves. However, in the case of bulk catch, there arises a need to promote and support

traders to receive fish from fishers and distribute to various consumption centers. Such

entrepreneurship can be possibly formed through credit and extension supports. In addition to

this, the BoA needs to make promotion of fish trade to attract others.

I. Resource monitoring and management

In order to sustain the benefits from rivers, lakes and reservoir fisheries, their development need

to be regulated at optimum level. This can be possible by introducing and enforcing an effective

fisheries management regime which requires regular collection of catch (yield) and effort data.

Further more, for the wellbeing of the fish diversity in particular and the river & lake ecosystem

at large, environmental impact assessment (EIA) should be done before any development plan

and/ or any investment project is approved in the catchment area of the water bodies and there

must be also continuous limnological research to get baseline information to monitor any change

in the physico-chemical as well as biological parameters of the water bodies.

J. Organizational Setup and Extension Support

The current organizational setup of livestock department should be reviewed and upgraded in

accordance with their growing fishery development and management needs of the region. It

requires a functioning fishery data collection and analysis system for the rivers and other small

water bodies, which will form basis for resource management. Since the development of fishery

calls new technique and skills, the availability of sufficient trained personnel should be serious

considered. The current development agents graduated from regional Agricultural Technical,

37

Vocational, Education and Training College should take fishery courses so that they can carry

out the fishery extension services effectively. The curriculum has to be improved keeping in

view of the requirement of capacity for development agents. They need to upgrade their capacity

through on-job-training. Moreover, for effective extension service to farmer/fishers, the current

Farmers Training Center (FTC) should be included the fishery part and strengthened.

K. Undertaking Applied Researches

The Livestock Research Process of the BG Regional State Agricultural Research Institute and

Pawe Agricultural Research Center need to incorporate the fishery as a major research

component. However, due to lack of manpower nothing has been done so far. Research

approaches for development and management of the fishery should be applied.

It should be concentrated on identification of the interlinking complex ecosystem of existing

rivers with flooded areas. Above all, the impact of future expansion of agriculture, construction

of Millennium and other dams and upper and lower streams, before and after impoundment on

fishery should be given priority. The limnology of almost all the rivers in the region, the biology

and dynamicity of the fish species are not studied but this information are very indispensible for

the management of the fishery resource so as to sustain the benefit of the society and

biodiversity.

L. Institutional Linkage

The formation of effective linkages with appropriate institutions to implement integrated

catchment management, protect the environment from pollution, degradation or modification is

very essential. This linkage will facilitate exchange of information, integration and

harmonization of common interests and efforts. Strong linkage with institutions related to

irrigation development and hydropower generation is also indispensable. In addition, training,

extension and research institutions should be linked cohesively to provide the basis for

development of fisheries and aquaculture technologies, transfer and identify fisheries-generated

technologies and practices that could have impacts on the implementation of government

management recommendations.

M. Approaching NGOs

More than 30 NGOs are participating on education, health and agricultural development in the

region. But no one is involving in fisheries and aquaculture development in the region.

Considering their assistance in other sectors, it is necessary to approach and guide them to

participate in fishery development activities as well.

16. Conclusions and Recommendation

The survey showed that fish is one of the main food components among the native ethics groups

who shares about 50% of total population. However, the current exploitation is limited to

subsistence level. At present, fish production is 183 ton/yr. The estimated fish production

38

potentials of sampled rivers are found to be 2,400 tons/yr indicating that there is a possibility to

increase the current level of production more than 13 times. Production can be increase gradually

by implementing the proposed development interventions.

The economical weakness and illiteracy coupled with shortage in skill and supply of modern

fishing gears and techniques, makes the sector to contribute very little to the development and

welfare of the society. Therefore, fishery development projects should be definitely formulated

to the significance and the contribution of fisheries to reduce poverty in the region.

Finally, the team suggests the following recommendations

1. The illegal, devastating fishing practice using poisonous agricultural chemicals should be

stopped before the fishes are going to be extinct in the region.

2. The fisheries extension service delivery should be started. Colleges and Universities

should incorporate fisheries and aquaculture in their curriculum.

3. Research institutes should demonstrate technologies helpful for the subsector. Research

should identify the resource potential of the region, assess the fish stock and production

potential of waterbodies, conduct studies on the breeding, feeding and migration pattern,

survey the post harvest management practices and socio- economic issues.

4. Training (both short and long term) should be given for experts, researchers,

Development Agents, Fishers, managers and investors engaged in fisheries and

aquaculture.

5. Marketing infrastructures (for both inputs and products) should be established and the

necessary linkage should be made.

6. Special credit arrangements should be devised for the investors interested to invest on

fisheries and aquaculture.

39

Annexes Annex 1. Terms of Reference

Fishery Resource Study Program: ToR for fish resources assessment in Benshnagul-Gumuz Regional

State (Revised in Oct 2010)

1. Introduction

The region has enormous water bodies and the most diverse fish resources. Traditionally, the fishery

resource has been exploited for centuries by the native mainly Gumuz people. Despite this, the current

level of development and utilization of the fishery resource contributes marginally to achieving food

security and economic growth in the region. A wide range of constraints contributed to this, of which the

region lacks skilled human resource capacity in the field to explore the opportunities and challenges and

devise appropriate interventions.

To develop regional fisheries, in the first place it is essential to discover the stock sizes and abundance in

space and time of those underexploited and the as yet not development culture fisheries. Secondly, in

connection with biological assessment, it will be important to select the appropriate fishing technologies

to take up the identified stocks. Not less important is the examination of the economic viability of the

selected fishing operations.

Recognizing this, the region has planned and requested support to the AED/MoA for technical assistance.

Thus, this preliminary fishery development study proposed.

2. Objective

The objective of this study is to understand the current status and prospect of the selective rivers and Diga

reservoir, and thus prepare a regional strategic fishery development plan, which will improve and expand

the development and utilization of the abundant fishery resources and ultimately increase its contribution

to achieving food security and economic growth in the region.

3. Strategies and activities

A region-wide coverage of the fishery resources should be made, of course with particular emphasis in

Woredas (Sirbabay, Guba, Dangur, Kamashi, Bambasi, Belojeganfo, Tongo Sp., Pawe, and Mandura)

which are identified for implementation by Regional Agricultural & rural Development Bureau, to which

fishery is an important component.

The result of the study should enable the preparation/improvement of fishery development plan and

formulation of regional fishery projects.

4. Terms of reference

The following specific activities will be achieved.

1. Determine the annual exploitable potential of the regional fishery waters: on Abay, Dabus, Beles,

Anger Rivers and Diga Reservoir/weir;

2. Identify and select the both the indigenous and modern fishing and post-harvest technologies and

practices, which are deemed appropriate, with or without improvement. Also identify the

magnitude of fishing efforts and season to be deployed;

3. Assess the present and future fish marketing and consumption situations;

40

4. Assess pertinent institutions and capacities for supporting the development of the regional

fisheries;

5. Identify constraints and development opportunities; and

6. Propose development interventions.

5. Methodologies

Literature review: Review existing pertinent literature

Field survey for collecting data: To collect and analyze commercial catch & effort and experimental

data in order to estimate the fish potential, select appropriate gears, and effective fishing grounds and

seasons. Water chemistry data will be collected as necessary.

Consultation: Exchange of information, ideas and opinion about developing the fishery in the region

with relevant institutions and individuals.

41

Annex 2. List of persons/ institutions consulted

Atnafu Agonafir Head of Agricultural Extension Main Process , BGRS BoA

Gelaye Dinega Planning and evaluation Officer, BGRS BoFED

Abdissa Addisu Weyis Development Sector Coordination Officer

AbebebWorku Development Sector Coordination Officer

Dessalegn Sissay Development Planning Officer

Kinde Advisor, BGRS Presidant office

Baye Wegaje Logistic Planner, Food Security …..

Worku Wirtu Food shortage Expose Expert, Early Warning Coordination Sub Process

Ayele Mulugeta Irrigation Officer, BoWR

Engdalamaw Adane Animal Production Expert, BOA, BGRS

Samuel Nigusse Expert, Balanced Development Directorate, MoFA

Amare Sima Expert, Balanced Development Directorate, MoFA

Yosef Abose Head, Sirba Abay Woreda Office of Agriculture

Mossisa Meshesha Head, Sirba Abay Woreda Administration

Tekle Mohammed Cooperative Expert, Sirba Abay Woreda Office of Agriculture

Genanaw Gizachew Cooperative Expert, Kmash Zone Office of Agriculture

Ketema Amare/Merih Plan & Program Head, Belo Jiganfoy Woreda Office of Agriculture

Bushu Chala Fishermen/Farmer, Belo Jiganfoy Woreda

Atinkut Eshetu Head, Mandura Woreda Offoce of Agriculture

Esmael Jibril Mandura Woreda Agricultural Exptension Process Coordinator

Siile Tamir Animal Health Expert Mandura Woreda Agricultural Office

Mulat Asferaw Fishermen/Farmer, Mandura Woreda

Etefa Derso Purcheser, Metekel Zone Presion Office

Abyiot Abeje Head, Metekel Zone Office of Agriculture

Shibabaw Tarekegn Crop Expert, Metekel Zone Office of Agriculture

Samuel Yimam Animal Production Expert, Pawi Special Woreda Office of Agriculture

Sewhareg Berihun Animal Production Expert, Pawi Special Woreda Office of Agriculture

Tagele Amsalu Fishermen/Farmer, Pawi Special Woreda

Belachew Degarege Fishermen/Farmer, Mandura Woreda

Dejaz Almehi Head, Guba Wored Agriculture Office

Mulat Ayalneh Coordinator, food Security Process , Guba Woreda

Erahim Tsadeq V/Chairman, Arenja Kebele Adminstration , Guba Woreda

Abed Ajeb Manager, Bameza Kebele , Guba Woreda

42

Annex 3. List of fish species from sampled rivers Common name

(Gumuz/Bertha)

Scientific name

Family Distribution of species

Abay Anger Beles Dabus Dedesa

Jajumua/Jaja Auchenoglanis

occidentalis

Bagridae + + +

Tsembelela/ Eimattia Latus niloticus Centropomidae + +

Beluwa Parachanna obscura Channidae + +

Lekewar Brycinus nurse Characidae +

Zaza/ Yechacheya Brycinus macrolepidotus Characidae + + + +

Siliya Hydrosinus forskahlii Characidae + +

Bedena Clarias gariepinus Clariidae + + + +

Piza/Bareda Hetrobranchus longifilis Clariidae +

Begbah/Bultti Oreochromis niloticus Cichlidae + + + + +

Eibra/ Abgedum Labeo nedga Cyprinidae + + +

Tsehiya Labeo forskalii Cyprinidae + + +

Goshe Labeo bynni Cyprinidae +

Wuzig‟na/Buili‟ga Labeo Horie Cyprinidae +

Bactracia Labeo coubie Cyprinidae +

Tsie‟a Labeo intermedius Cyprinidae + + +

Tsieya Labeo degeni Cyprinidae +

Ekundinga Barbus bynni Cypriniidae + +

Bezo Varicorhinus beso Cyprinidae +

Wuzigna Distichodus brevipinnis Distichodontida +

Eiptangra Distichodus niloticus Distichodontida +

Eibla Nannocharax niloticus Distichodontida +

Bomodiedin‟ga Malapterurus electricus Malapteruridae + +

Mugogo / Bogogowa Synodontis schall Mochokidae + + +

Bisanduma

/Bisberkuba

Hyperopisus bebe Mormyridae +

Bilundin‟ga Mormyrus anguilloides Mormyridae +

Bebela/Bilila Mormyrus kannume Mormyridae + + + +

Ashembenato Mormyrus niloticus Mormyridae +

Witiya Marcusenius cyprinoides Mormyridae +

Takuasa/Tikuasa Tetraodon lineatus Tetraodontide +

Total number of species (29) 23 13 12 3 6

43

Annex 4. Photos of sampled fish species

1.1. Fishes samples of Anger River

1.2. Fish samples of Dabus River

44

1.3.Fish samples of Abay, Beles and Dedessa a Rivers

45

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