Abstract:
Ethiopia has substantial fishery resources in the inland lakes and rivers with potential yield
of more than 94500 tons per year from the main water bodies like Lakes Tana, Ziway,
Langeno, Hawassa, Chamo, Abaya and manmade reservoirs. The fishery sector of Ethiopia is
not well developed regarding post-harvest handling practice due to fish post-harvest
handling practices and loss are the bottlenecks in fisheries sector. The present study was
aimed to assess handling practices and estimate postharvest losses at Lake Ardibo located in
Tehuledere Woreda, South Wolo, Amhara Regional State. The data was collected from
October, 2018 to May, 2019 using three methods (Informal fish loss assessment methods,
Load track methods, and Questionnaire loss assessment method) from all the registered
members of the fishermen cooperatives. Questionnaires, observations and participatory rural
appraisal were used to collect primary data and additionally secondary data were collected
from Tehuledere Woreda, Agricultural office. All of the fishermen were male and 96.32% of
them were married. About 33.87% ranges between 6-10 years of experience and 31.02 %
ranges between 11-15 years of experience. 40% of the respondents were first cycle (1-4)
grade level, 29.79 % were 5-8 grade level and 16.73 % were illiterate. A total of 149463 kg
fish was harvested in last year, from these 13574 kg fish was lost. The average weekly and
daily fish production was 1542.4 kg and 529kg, respectively and also the average weekly and
daily loss of fish was141.4kg and 23.63kg, respectively. The major factors for loss were
absence of market linkage between fishermen and traders, lack of enough refrigerators,
distance of the lake from town and lack of transportations. Market force loss that leads to
both quality and physical loss were dominant at Lake Ardibo. A significant correlation was
found between the amount of fish post-harvest lose and the explanatory variables like major
factors for PHL, storage time of fish and fishing experience with (R=0.951, do = 7, p
<0.001). At the study area in every 200kg harvested fish 17.5kg fish was lost and totally
13574 kg fish postharvest loss was recorded due to this the fishermen cooperatives lost
1,357,400birr. This calls for effective postharvest management of fish from harvesting to
consumption.
