Ethiopia has a great potential for small scale aquaculture development. However, the overall fish production in the country is very low due to several constraints. Therefore, this study was aimed to identify major constraints affecting the development of small scale aquaculture production and forward possible intervention for further research, extension work and policy makers. For this purpose, questionnaire survey and visual observation were used to collect primary data. A total of 300 fish farming households having artificial fish pond were purposively selected. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The study showed that five major constraints hindering the development and the promotion of aquaculture production were identified. The most serious constraint was the absence of aquaculture technologies (as reported by 72.7–85% of the total respondents) followed by shortage of sustainable quality fish seeds and feeds supply (as reported by 60–80% of the total respondents), while low Nile tilapia yield (as reported by 32.5–34.5% of the total respondents) was the least constraint across and within the two studied areas. The rank and the trend of the constraints across the two areas were the same, while it was different among different agro-ecologies. In conclusion, the first two identified aquaculture production constraints, i.e. applicable technology transfer gap and shortage of sustainable quality fish seeds and feeds supply, were taken the most serious problems affecting the development of aquaculture in the study areas and beyond. Thus different stakeholders should be integrated to work on the adoption of appropriate aquaculture technologies and production of quality fish seeds and feeds.

埃塞俄比亚具有发展小型水产养殖的巨大潜力。然而，由于一些限制，该国的鱼类总产量很低。因此，本研究旨在确定影响小规模水产养殖生产发展的主要制约因素，并为进一步的研究，推广工作和决策者提供可能的干预措施。为此，问卷调查和视觉观察被用来收集主要数据。总共选择了300个有人工鱼塘的养鱼户。使用SPSS软件分析数据。研究表明，确定了阻碍水产养殖生产发展和促进的五个主要制约因素。最严重的制约因素是缺乏水产养殖技术（据72报告。占受访者总数的7–85％），其次是可持续质量的鱼籽和饲料供应短缺（占受访者总数的60–80％），而尼罗罗非鱼产量低（占总数的32.5–34.5％）受访者）在这两个研究领域之间和之内的约束最小。这两个地区的限制条件的等级和趋势是相同的，但不同的农业生态系统却有所不同。总之，前两个确定的水产养殖生产限制，即适用的技术转让差距和可持续的优质鱼籽和饲料供应短缺，被视为影响研究区域及其他地区水产养殖发展的最严重问题。