Among the bounties of Ethiopia is found its fish resource. What does the potential look like? Why the country has not fully tapped the resource? How could it do so? The Ethiopian Herald has approached pertinent bodies and stakeholders for explanation.
Ethiopia couldproduce 95,000 tonsof fishonly from natural sources annually, The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) indicates.
Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Resource Development Directorate Director Hussien Abegaz told The Ethiopian Herald that thoughhaving the potential to harvest more than 95,000 tons of fish the country’s current annual fish production does not exceed 55,000 tons per year.
But, through the application of artificial-and -technologically assisted fish production,it is possible to bump up the quantity, he added.
Following this, MoA is actively working
towards introducing new fish harvesting technologies to fully tap the sector’s
potential and meet the country’sfish consumptiondemand, he said.
Lacks of fisheries resource inputs, technologies, improved fish species and fish feeds, among others, are still the sector’sbottlenecks, according to him.
As to him, capacity building tops MOA’scurrent budget year’s activities. Parallel to this, MoA is engaged indeveloping the fisheries resource.
He reiterated that fish sector investment and development seek modern technologies. To this end,successive sector inputs selection and specification have been undertaken throughout theoutgoing budget year.
“Local and international private investors’ participation is lower in the fisheries sector. The country is exporting raw fish into Sudan and Kenya from Lake Tanna and Turka. Further value-adding activities must be made a point of to generate more from the sector,” he stressed.
Currently, the country produces fish mainly from natural fish resources such as highland and lowland lakes, rivers as well as streams, he noted.
He said it is easy to harvest more fish resourcesfrom modern fish domestication, adding that, identifying and solving fisheries sector bottlenecks are fundamental to exploit the country’s fish resource potential.
Ehy PLC(former Fish Production and Marketing Enterprise) is one of the private sector fish trader based in Addis Ababa starting from 2008.
PLC CEO Nigussie Amdemariam told The Ethiopian Herald that the use of a narrow
fishing nets [that capture from big up to small fishes together] by both legal and illegal fishermen across the country is aformidable factor for the dwindling of fisheries resource.
Lack of latest fishing technologies is also affecting the sector, he adds.
In Ethiopia there is an ever growing demand for fish but the fish market is still obstructed by limited supplies, he said.
“Currently, the country’s fisheries resource supply cannot fulfill the partial public fish feed demand. Lake Tanna, Arbaminch and River Tekeze are the leading fish sources of the country .But due to the lack of suitable fisheries resource conservation and utilization policies and guidelines, the resource is getting depleted from time to time”, he stressed.
According to him, the Federal and State government’s haste of creating new job opportunities bymaking fishermen out of inexperienced youths is challenging the sector. The uses are seen using improper and backward fishing techniques.
“As a private company we are undertaking continuous researches and conducting follow- ups in the sector. As such, we provide various recommendations to the government and pertinent stakeholders regarding modernizing the sector and running it properly,” he underscored.
It is not possible to say that all the fish suppliers transport fish on the right way to the consumer. As contrabandists, fish suppliers mostly transport fishes with Isuzu and other vehicles together with other goods and stokes, he noted.
The government should aggressively conduct awareness creation tasks among licensed fish supplier associations, hold constant discussions and reach on a common understanding about how to run the sector, he emphasized.
In general, active engagements of the government and sector stakeholders is important to generate more from the sector, he emphasized.
As to him, Ethiopia’s fisheries resource is facing so many bottlenecks. It is high time to rescue the sector before getting worst from bad.
According to Hussien bolstering fish research institutes, delivering free capacity building training opportunities to the fishermen as well as incentivizing private sector participation both in inputs and latest sector-technology supply is imperative to generate more from the sector.
The Ethiopian Herald June 23/2019
BY TEWODROS KASSA
