Fish smoking technology is advantageous preservation methods in area where fish production is surplus and needs to be stored for long period. This activity was conducted in selected Oromia Water bodies for four consecutive years from 2014-2017 with the objective of pre-scale up of fish smoking technology, enhance the skill and knowledge of Fishermen and creating better linkage with different stakeholder. For this study water, bodies were purposively selected based on fish production potential and from each water bodies Fishery cooperatives were selected based on convenience of the site to disseminate the technology, land ownership, market access, accessibility for all fishery cooperatives and interest of fishermen in collaboration with experts of the respective Zone and districts. After awareness creation about technology, Altona Oven was constructed at each selected water body. Personal observation, informant interviews and group discussion used as data collection methods. Some descriptive statistics used for quantitative data as well as explanation of ideas and feedback was analyzed using qualitative narration. At each site One Farmer Research Extension Group (FREG) member having from 12-30 fishermen and a total of five FREGs were established to popularize the technology. A total of 116 participants were exposed to awareness creation. Mini field day was organized in collaboration with stakeholders at each district and a total of 152 participants were involved in the exercise. The fishermen feedback indicated that fish smoking technology was highly preferred by the fishermen in the area due to its efficiency, effectiveness, ease to implement and ability to produce testy fish. Since the fish smoking technology have positive feedback from fishermen we recommend to Livestock and fishery offices at district and zonal level in collaboration with other stakeholder should work on the wider scaling up of this technology.

Keywords: Pre-scaling up; Fish smoking; Fishermen; FREG; Altona Oven.