Contributions of Fisheries for Food and Nutrition Security: A Review with Ethiopian Contexts

Abstract

In Ethiopia, mainly fish productions are from Great Rift Valley lakes and in some other northern parts of the country. Despite the potential of fish production its fish consumption is insignificant and found to play little role in the households’ livelihood. The demand for fish in the country is increasing; however, the supply side is not increasing with large opportunities to produce. For The consumption pattern and demand is increasing. The total fish production of the country accounts less than 1 percent of total production in Sub-Saharan African countries. Therefore with a little contribution for food and nutrition security the fishery sector has challenges related to existing climate changes, mismanagement fishery resources, lack of timely policies and institution and other technical backups related to loose rules and regulations. There are numerous explanations ascribing to the low and poor production due to inappropriate and not advancing fishing methods, economic disabilities related to infrastructures like preservation technologies. The absence of appropriate managements has been affecting the utilization of fishery resources. Thus future works has to give due attentions to exploit the fish production potentials and enhance the contributions to food and nutrition security.