Katikala, which in the past was a traditional home made alcoholic drink, hasrnnow became a commercial item and is supporting considerable number of labour forcern(of female), particularly in urban parts of Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is tornassess employment and income generating capacity of katikala business in Assela town.rnIn order to achieve this, a multi-stage sampling procedure was employed. Usablernquestionnaires were collected from 200 katikala producing households in sixrnsystematically selected kebeles andfrom 30 katikala distributors.rnIn order to achieve this objective, both descriptive and statistical analyticalrntechniques have been utilized. Pearson's product moment model was employed so as tornmeasure the degree of association between the dependent variable (income) and therndifferent independent variables.rnThe Dega and Weina-Dega partsof Arsi Zone have excess production of cropsrnlike barley, wheat, tef!, etc. while the adjacent low-lands (kola) parts are producingrnexcess volume of maize, sorghum and others. As a result all the inputs for thernproduction of Katikala are available in and around Assela. The finding indicated thatrnKatikala industry is found to support huge labour force (almost entirely of female)rnparticularly in the production sector. Lack of job opportunity, family responsibility,rninsufficient family income from other sources are found to be the major pushing factorsrnfor the operators to be involved into the activity. The producers are using simple andrnrudimentary tools and they work unsanitary conditions.rnThe finding further revealed that Katikala producers generate average monthlyrnincome of Birr J 02. 9, while the distributors get average monthly income of Birr 260. O.rnBoth the producers and distributors of Katikala are carrying out other side linernactivities in Katikala business to augment their incomes.rnOf the total volume of Katikala produced in Assela, 68 to 80% is exported andrndestined at Addis Ababa (Akaki and Kality), Nazreth (including Wonji), Methehara,rnHarar, Dire-Dawa and others. These towns constitute substantial proportion ofrnindustrial labour force whose monthly income is amongst the lowest in the country.rnThese low salaried and waged people are found to be the major consumers of suchrnliquors as Tella and Katikala.As the study underscored, monthly income of the producers was influenced byrnlack of capital, family size as well as the level of income from other sideline activities.rnSimilarly, investing capital, work experience and their age are found to be the principalrndeterminants of income of the distributors.rnThe problems of housing, fluctuation of cost of input and out put, inadequaterninfrastructural facilities, the rudimentary equipment used in the activity and thernbackward techniques of production are found to be major constraints among thernproducers. On the distributors side, absence of defined or predetermined location forrnsale of katikala in the open market, inadequacy of the existing transportation and thernexcessive governmental tax were reported as major constraints