The Role of Fishery Cooperative in Poverty Reduction: the Case of Tehuledere Woreda, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world in which socio-economic status of the country is very low, the daily income of 44 percent of the people is below $1US, unemployment rate stands at about 54% (49.6% for males and 56.7% for females) and illiteracy rate is very high(UN,2007). It is of no surprise that, Ethiopia has not managed to reduce the aggravating poverty and deprivations of their citizens while giving almost no care of promotion and development of cooperatives. However, since the last decade, there has been a move towards understanding the potential of the sector. Nonetheless, from the unemployment rate of view, the roles of cooperatives in poverty reduction in general and fishery cooperatives in particular are insignificant. Therefore, the study was conducted in Tehuledere woreda of the Amhara region with major objective of evaluating the role of lego_ardibo primary fishery cooperative in poverty reduction. Since member s number is easily manageable, census method was used and primary data were collected from both members and woreda key cooperative officers through structured interview schedule as well as questionnaire. Data were also presented and discussed using various tools of descriptive statistics, tables and figures as well. According to the study, before membership sample households had minimum yearly working days of 20 members and the maximum yearly working days were 121 with 55 mean and 29 standard deviations. After membership, the majority 83(56%) of members are full time workers in fishery and have got an employment between101and 200 days in a year, and some members have got up to 100 man days of part-time employment. In addition family members and hired labors also have got full and part-time work opportunities. The majority 126 (82.8%) of member`s monthly income was ranged from 0-400 Birr before membership. However, after membership, 115(75.6%) of their monthly income increased and ranged from 401-1000 Birr. Member s average annual expenditure is increased from 424.64 Birr to 940 .35 Birr The result shows that, lego_ardibo primary fishery cooperative has a positive contribution to its members in relation to their income, employment creation, increasing production and productivity, better access to education, medical care, housing and food consumption and market creation as well. Thus, LAPFC plays its own role in poverty reduction in the selected woreda.