Assessment of Current Status of Fishermen Cooperatives at Selected Oromia Water Bodies, Ethiopia
This study was conducted to assess current status of fishermen cooperatives in selected Oromia water bodies,
Ethiopia that was aimed to update the information which will be used infisheries management in major lakes and
reservoirs. Both primary and secondary data sources were used to conduct the study. The primary data was collected
from the fishermen organized at Lakes Zeway, Langano and Beseka and reservoirs Koka, Fincha and Gilgel-gibe.
Papers were reviewed literatures and different secondary information source to conduct thisstudy. The study
included fishermen’s sociodemographic, educational status, fishing experience, purpose of fishing, season of fishing,
fishing activities, fishing boat, fishing gears, saving practices and women participation. Data was analyzed using
STATA version 14. A total of 154 fishermen (98.05% male), and 18 fishermen cooperatives operating on the selected
lakes and reservoirs were interviewed during the survey. The livelihoods of majority offishermen’s were fishing
activities and some of them depend on mixingfarming systems including crop production, livestock and petty trade.
Among the respondent fishers, 88 (57.14) were involved in fishing activities year round. The majority of fishermen in
selected water bodies responded that average fish catch per day was less than 10 kg. The main commercial fish species
in Zeway, Koka, Langano water bodies were Nile Tilapia, African catfish, common carp and crucian carp and whereas
in case Fincha and Gilgel-gibe, Nile tilapia and commoncarp fish species and African catfish in lake Beseka. The
Tobit model was employed with household participation in saving as the dependent variable and theresults shown
that family size of household, access offishing equipment, number of livestock unit, access ofcredit service and
annual income of household from farming are significant determinants of saving decision of households. Based on
these findings, we recommend that government policy intervention should focus on awareness creation and
education on lakes and reservoir managements, increasing the availability and accessibility ofcredit services for
fishermen, strengthen fishermen through providing fishing equipment's, increasing fishermen income through
income source diversification and awareness creation for fishermen on how to improve saving practice.
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