BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
Fish production has become a fast-growing agricultural sector that provides animal protein for most people globally. While China is the leading country in the world, Egypt and Nigeria stand on the top in Africa.
The overall fishery production potential of Ethiopian water bodies is estimated to be 94,500 tons per year, while the actual production is 38,370 tons. Despite more water bodies and more fish diversity in the region, fish production and marketing is very low.
An academic article that has assessed the main factors affecting fish production and the marketing chain in the Gambella region of Ethiopia recently revealed that despite the known water and fish potential of the region, fish production is very low. Major factors contributing to a reduction in fish production in the region include inefficient fishing gears, poor transportation access, poor postharvest handling, low price at the landing site, and improper market place.
Drying is the predominant postharvest technique and fishing methods are of a subsistence basis. All the fishing activities take place in the natural environment, and aquaculture is not yet established. Enough modern and efficient gears need to be made available. Other modern postharvest handling techniques need to be introduced to ensure a longer shelf life of fish after harvest. Infrastructures need to be constructed to access all water bodies in the region. Because the region has such water resource potential and incredible fish species diversity, aquaculture needs to be established and popularized. Traceability needs to be adopted in the region to prevent food-borne diseases.
Based on the article published in Hindawi Scientific World Journal, the government of Ethiopia, the region and other stakeholders could develop policy considering the issue of the fishery status of the region as well as in other parts of the country that has the potential for fish farming.
Ensuring traceability through the food chain can be accomplished by careful planning, taking the time to gain consensus among the food operators, and gaining the trust of the consumers. To gain consumer trust in the traceability system as a whole, the traceability system in place must meet the set standards.
Having a common understanding of food traceability among food business operators is imperative when agreeing to the introduction of a system through the food chain. Equally as important is ensuring the consistency of the food traceability system implemented by each food operator and making effective connections among all the systems.
Molecular studies will continue to clarify the taxonomic status of seafood-borne pathogens and their relationship to one another. Outbreaks of certain human pathogenic bacteria, such as members of the genus Vibrio, are frequently associated with the consumption of raw and undercooked shellfish.
The findings show that though the Baro-Akobo basin has the most diverse fish species in Ethiopia, it contributes little to the national fish demands. (ii)The major constraints that reduce fish production in the Gambella region include inefficient fishing gear, poor transportation access, lack of fish handling facilities, and poor postharvest handling. (iii)Drying is the predominant postharvest handling technique practised in the region. (iv)Major marketing constraints include low prices at the landing site, poor road access, high transportation cost, improper market place, lack of cold storage, and poor power supply. (v)The fishing methods used in the study area are predominantly traditional and on a subsistence basis. (vi)All the fishing activities in the region take place in the natural environment, and aquaculture is not yet established. (vii)Insufficient institutional and management capacity, limited resource allocation and investment, poor policy and regulatory framework, and insufficient value chain and fish marketing infrastructure are some of the cross-sectoral challenges affecting fisheries in Ethiopia, particularly the Gambella region. (viii)Traceability is a concept utilizing a variety of tools and advanced technologies in assuring public health by inspecting food before being used. (ix)The most important benefit of traceability is the improvement of supply chain management. Other benefits include an increase in the ability to retain existing customers, product quality improvement, product differentiation, and reduction of customer complaints.
Enough modern and efficient gears need to be made available in the regions to be used by the fishers(ii)Enough power supply needs to be installed in the Fishery Production and Marketing Enterprise collection centres and other postharvest handling techniques need to be introduced in the region to ensure a longer shelf life of fish after harvest(iii)Regional governments need to construct infrastructures to access all water bodies in the region and stabilize the current security problem faced by the fishers(iv)Because the region has such water resource potential and incredible fish species diversity, aquaculture needs to be established(v)Traceability needs to be adopted and effectively implemented worldwide, including developing nations to ensure the safety of the public
Because of its high protein content, fish is one of the most perishable foods that can be spoiled easily if not properly preserved, particularly in tropical and subtropical climates. Fish can still be subjected to a range of spoilages even if traditional preservation techniques have been used.
Fishes, like other commercial commodities, are needed to be transported from landing sites to places where they can be sold or utilized by the consumers. Because of their perishable nature, fish need very careful attention to maintain quality and avoid spoilage. Ethiopia mostly experiences a traditional stage in fish handling and preservation techniques. The fish captured are taken from on-site immediately and reach the market by traditional means of transportation without any preservation facilities to keep them fresh. The traditional means of fish preservation and transportation contributed much to the low quality of preserved fish and the short lifespan of fish products.
According to Dorgi and Gala, 64.8per cent of the surveyed fishery cooperatives in the Gambella region lack access to transportation services and the fishers used to carry their products to reach nearby market places on foot. Few of them with little access to transportation use bicycles and car transport. For the fishery sector to succeed in promoting the local and national economy, all stakeholders should participate in providing all the necessary services required to get the best out of the sector.
The most common form of fish preservation technique practised in Gambella is drying. Sun-drying is the simplest way of preserving fish and is practised not only in Gambella but also in some Rift Valley lakes where fish are caught locally.
Fishers remove gut, behead and fillet their catch, and expose them to sunlight for immediate dry up. The postharvest handling process of any products, including fish, is the procedure taken to ensure the quality of a product until handed over to the customer. This drying technique is mostly performed by local fishermen on remote fishing sites where they could spend some time before bringing their catches to the nearby markets. The smoking technique is sparingly used, especially during the wet season when there is not enough sunlight. The smoked fish cannot be sold in the local market because of their low quality and can only be used for home consumption. The traditional post handling techniques and transportation methods being used in the region contributed much in one way or the other to the low quality of fish resulting in low price in the market.
Deep freezing and cold rooms are also used in some cases by Fish Production and Marketing Enterprise centres in the Gambella region. Even though there are some modern preservation facilities like refrigerators for temporary fish collection, they do not have enough power supply to keep the facilities function properly. The problem is intense because most fish retail shops, fish collection, and storage facilities do not have backup diesel generators. There is no report on salting as preservation methods in Gambella, but ICC reported that some trials have been made at the Fishery Production and Marketing Enterprise collection centre in Ziway for this technique.
Capture fishery involves the catching of valuable aquatic organisms from their natural environment. All the fish utilized in the country are collected from the wild by subsistence means. Though Gambella is known for its remarkable fish diversity in its water bodies, it contributes little to national fish consumption. Most of the fishery resources consumed in the big cities and towns in Ethiopia are captured from the Rift Valley lakes (40per cent) and Lake Tana (50.2per cent). Subsistence capture fishing activities are performed in the Baro-Akobo river system and its tributaries in Gambella, mostly for local consumption. Capture fisheries are the sole fishery strategy in the whole country, and its production is declining drastically because of several reasons. These include agricultural expansion, pollution, climate change, siltation, irrigation schemes, overfishing, and so on. Despite favourable physical and hydrographic conditions (suitable geographic relief, rich soil quality, good mean annual rainfall, and sufficient freshwater availability), aquaculture production is negligible in Ethiopia. Since the fishery experts understood the value of fishes, a fish campaign is underway where the local people as a whole are to be aware of the benefits of fishes and take part in fish farming.
So there is an urgent need to establish aquaculture in the country for farming valuable aquatic organisms under controlled artificial environments to replace the declining capture fishery. There is no report about Aquaculture in the Gambella region. Because of the region’s water bodies and fish potential, it is in the mind of fisheries experts to establish aquaculture in the region. Therefore, Gambella is regarded as “the dreamland for aquaculture,”
The Ethiopian Herald 20 March 2021
