Assessment on handling practices and post-harvest loss of fish in Lake Ardibo, South Wolo, Tehuledere Woreda Ethiopia

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.