Investigation of Honey Production Potential and Challenges in Nunu Kumba District, in East Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia
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Date
2019-08-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate honey production system, available potential, constraints and beekeeping management practices at Nunu Kumba district. The main purposes of the investigation was to identify and document the existing honey production system, opportunities, challenges and beekeeping management practice of the district. For this purpose data were collected from six Kebeles selected purposively and the respondents were selected based on simple random sampling techniques. Thus, 39, 36,29,25,11 people and 10 beekeepers were selected from Hora Bacha, Mane Makenisa, Wama Dire, Abdi Umat, Harko Gudatu and Dila Koye kebeles respectively using proportional allocation giving a total of 150 bee keepers and interviewed using questionnaires, focus group discussions. The data was analyzed by descriptive method of data analysis (percent, frequency, mean, standard deviation and Microsoft excel. From this study, two types of beekeeping systems were documented, namely: Traditional beekeeping systems and Modern beekeeping systems. About 98% of respondents practiced traditional beekeeping. Only 2% of the respondent practiced traditional and modern beekeeping system. The mean bee colony holding size of the respondent was about 66.2 house hold. There was one major honey flow season in the study area (November to December). Based on the results of this study, the major challenges of beekeeping were pests and predators, agro chemical, lack of beekeeping equipment’s and materials, gender factor, long dry season and poor infrastructure. The opportunities sourced from the study area includes; flowering bee plants, perception of the societies, endogenous knowledge and presence of bee colonies. Due to high potential for honey production it is recommended to exploit the potential of the district more efforts should be put to create awareness of people on beekeeping, encourage farmers to practice hand weeding instead of using herbicide chemicals and integrate the indigenous knowledge with main stream science and introduce new practice in the area where by farmers knowledge is not productive and sustainability guarantees.
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Honeybee, Honey Producing Challenges, Honey Producing Potential, Nunu Kumba