Abstract

The study was conducted at Wolaita Zone Southern Ethiopia with the objective of assessing the status collection, utilization and marketing of hides and skins in the study area. Multi-stage sampling was employed for all sampling procedures. Three districts were purposively selected based on livestock population, intensity of fattening, degree of slaughtering frequency and number of hide and skin warehouse. From each district, three kebeles were selected randomly. From the selected kebeles, 135 households were selected randomly for interview. Farmers in the study area rear cattle mainly for multipurpose (30%), for fattening as income source (23%), for security (9.6%), for milk purpose (30%) and for draught purpose (7.4%). About 33% of the respondents reported that collectors collect hide and skin immediately after slaughtering, 53% with some delay and 13% in the next day. Forty eight percent of the respondents use hide and skin for various domestic purposes like for harness, miran, bedding material and for making chair from which majority of them use hide and skin for 'miran' (44%) and bedding ‘kurbet’(37%). Majority of the household respondents (76%) sold hide and skin to market after backyard slaughter in fresh state where as, the rest practice different types of hide and skin preservation techniques from which ground drying (57%) and smoking (24%) were common. The main factors for determination of price in the area were weight and size basis, freshness of hide and skin and absence of defects. According to the survey response, majority of producers sell their hide and skin either by price fixed by the buyers or through negotiation based on size and quality of the materials. The mean price of raw cattle hide as reported by majority of the households (57.8%) ranges from 100 to 120 Ethiopian Birr (ETB), sheep skin (69%) ranges from 50-60 ETB and goat skin (76%) ranges from 40-50 ETB. Training should be given for hide and skin collectors for timely collection to reduce spoilage and there should be hide and skin collection and marketing cooperative to have market linkage.

Key words: Collection, domestic purpose, hide and skin, marketing, preservation.