| dc.description.abstract | Assessment of post-harvest losses along the different stages of value chain of E. bredoi, was conducted between Kaiso and Wanseko landing sites along the shores of Lake Albert, the goal was to generate information on drivers and the magnitude of physical post-harvest losses along value chain of E. bredoi on Lake Albert, a total of 160 respondents were interviewed using questionnaire survey approach to generate quantitative data on losses. The study also used approaches of Ward and Jeffries, 2000 to determine levels of post-harvest losses and the differences in magnitude of post-harvest losses were compared using a One-way analysis of Variance. Analysis of variance revealed a statistical significant relationship (P<0.05) with age, educational level, fishing experience, storage and transportation facilities against percentage E. bredoi losses. Causes of post-harvest E. bredoi losses in the study area included, poor handling practices, poor packaging material, lack of storage facilities, lack of good means of transportation and theft. Results indicated that fishing activity was male dominated (95%), processing (95%) women and (5%) male, both men (52.5%) and women (47.5%) participated in trading, transportation was done mainly by the males (82.7%) while both male (47.5%) and female (52.5%) were involved in selling fish at the markets. The average post-harvest losses were in a range of 11.4% (marketers) to 42.9 % (traders) with losses at the fishing (16.9%) and processing (28.7%) nodes. Conclusion; Physical post-harvest losses occur at all nodes of the value chain with losses higher at the processing node though the traders lose more in terms of percentage weight, losses at the fishing node are due to improper handling of the E. bredoi during offloading while at the processing and trading nodes most of the losses are due to breakage. | en_US |
