Socio-economic and profitability of fisheries enterprises: The case of Fincha Amarti Nashe reservoir of Oromia state, Horo Guduru Wollega zone, Ethiopia

This study focused on the analysis of a value chain: the case of Fincha Amarti Nashe reservoir of Oromia State, Horo Guduru Wollega zone, Ethiopia. The socio-economic characteristics of the stake holders along the fisheries enterprises and analyses of market performance were employed to analyze marketing profit and profit margin of the chain actors. The data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from 122 respondents selected by multi-stage random sampled fisher men, six traders and 30 consumers through structured questionnaires and checklist. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis were used to analyze the qualitative data collected from fish producers, traders and consumers by using multinomial logit model. The data collected from the sample fisher men, consumers and traders were analyzed using descriptive statistics which included mean, standard deviation, chi-square, t-test, frequency table, and percentiles. Fishing was found to be male dominated (75.25 %), while processing was found to be female dominated (10.75 %) in the three selected kebeles of the district. The key constraints experienced by fishermen were lack of market, low price of product, lack of transport, lack of market information, distance to the market and perishability. Consumers also face high cost of fish, deterioration of fish and poor sanitary condition problems. Overall, fisher men are forced to capture a lower share of profit margin. Thus, action is needed to train local fishermen with management skills and assembly of marketing teams. Other issues to be addressed include women’s empowerment and gender equity, improving credit access, and introducing improved fishing inputs.