Evaluation of the Emerging Small Scale Rural Aquaculture in Dara and Yirga Chefe Woredas of SNNPRS, Ethiopia
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Abstract
A survey on small scale fish farming practice was conducted in two woredas, namely Yirgachefe and Dara in the SNNPRS. The study intended to evaluate the state of the recently emerging fish farming practices in the woredas. Detail survey with regard to fish pond management, feeding, and stocking, identification of culture species, fish yield and marketing were conducted. It was found that on average, one pond was owned by fish farmers in both woredas. Statistically significant difference was observed with regard to pond size (P<0.05), where fish farmers in Dara owned larger ponds (176.4 m2) compared to farmers in Yirga chefe (130.5m2). All fish farmers under the study used earthen ponds to culture fish (P>0.05), and river is the principal source of water (74.6%) while spring water came second (25.4%). The majority of the ponds (82.7%) in both woredas (P>0.05) were stocked with Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and only few of the farmers (17.3%) practice polyculture of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) with African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus). In both areas (P>0.05) 91.3% of the farmers practiced pond fertilization while 8.7% of them did not. With regard to feeding, majority of the ponds (82.6%) were provided with supplementary feeds (P<0.05) and only small number ponds (17.4%) relied on natural foods alone. Depending on fry availability, farmers in both woredas stock their ponds once per year (P>0.05). The reported average weight of fish at harvest was 256.74g and the estimated annual fish yield was 4905.94kg/ha/yr in both woredas (P>0.05). Farmers in Yerga chefe exclusively utilized what they produced for home consumption purpose while farmers in Dara sold majority of their produce and utilized few of the harvest for home consumption. Lack of technological support, poor growth rate of culture fish species, shortage of fry and lack of quality fish feeds were identified as the major constraints of fish farming in the two woredas.
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