DETERMINANTS OF FISH PRODUCTION IN LAKE ZIWAY, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The potential yield of all species of lake Ziway were estimated between 3,000 - 6680 tons per year, even though the actual production of the lake goes down from 2300 tones/year to 1127 tones/year with in not more than ten years; furthermore, its contribution to the national fish amount were more than the biggest lake Tana but within ten years its contribution became lower than lake Tana even together with lake Langano. Noting this, the study had attempted to investigate the determinants of fish production in lake Ziway using cross-sectional household survey. Analysis of descriptive statistics, bi-variate and multivariate regression model were used to analyze the data. And it was found that fishers produced 3.33 – 125.54kg per effort; In addition to this, age of fishers, education level and market access contribute significantly to increase fish catch. In contrast, availability of additional income other than fishing was linked to reduce catch. The study also confirms that fishing time is highly explicated fish catch, and consequently, night time fishers catch more fish irrespective of the capture technology they employed. The study also found that the type of fishing instrument is the most important factors in fishery production. Furthermore, limited government support, market chain problem, lack of place for post fishing activities, and illegal fishers were found the main problems of the fishers. Further, the study tries to explore problems encounter the lake, regarding this the study revealed that open access, below standard mesh size, and wastage comes from surrounding are the main critical problems letting the lake and its habitat to danger. In addition to the importance of controlling illegal fishers, the study is also indicative to direct and encourage the existence of follow up to the lake, also suggest efficient government support based on clear understanding of the socio-economic conditions and better organized cooperatives to reduce the problem and enhance current catch levels that maintain a higher yearly potential yield.