Assessing Honey Production Practices and Factors Affecting its Production in Gohatsion District of North Shewa Zone,Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia
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Date
2024-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In Ethiopia, honey production was a traditional occupation widely practiced by farmers as a supplementary income-generating activity. However, an inefficient agricultural marketing system coupled with traditional production methods hinders beekeepers from optimally benefiting from honey supply.The objective of the study was to assess honeybee production practices and factors affecting Honey production in the Gohatsion district,North showa Zone,Oromia regional state.The district stratified into three Agro-Ecologies, and a stratified random sampling procedure was followed to select the peasant association based on their agro-ecological zones. For this study,three Kebeles were purposefully selected, focusing on climate variability and its impact on honey production. A total of 120 respondents from those Kebeles were selected by discussing with experts, considering the farmer households who depend for their livelihood on honey production. Both primary and secondary data collection methods were used for this research, and the primary data were collected by direct investigation by the researcher to observe the status of honeybee colonies per household. The researcher used computer software packages such as Ms. Excel 2007-and SPSS to analyse the data.
Beekeeping in the study area was predominantly practiced by males, and about 83% of interviewed households were married, while the remaining 17% were single.Traditional, transitional, and modern frame hives were the three types of honeybee production systems, in which 40.8% of the respondents used only traditional hives, 10.8% used traditional and transitional hives, 24.2% used traditional and modern hives, 4.2% used transitional hives only, 5.8% used transitional and modern hives, 5% used modern hives only, and 9.2% used traditional, transitional, and modern frame hives. The average annual honey yields per hive per year from traditional beekeeping in the mid-land were higher than in the highland and lowland. The average annual honey yields per hive from traditional, transitional, and modern bee hives were 6.5kg, 10 kg, and 14 kg/ hive types respectively.The major factors that affected the honeybee production in the study districts were: pests and predators, high cost of modern hives and accessories, misuse of agro-chemicals, honeybee diseases, poor management, and shortage of bee forage, honeybee colony, and absconding of bees. The major pests and predators include ants, wax moth, honey badger, termites, hive beetles, spider, lizard, and bee-eater birds. To sustain the beekeeping activity, there should be the introduction of affordable and appropriate beekeeping technologies with all accessories, strengthening the appropriate beekeeping management practices, and finally mobilizing women and beekeepers into the sub-sectors through training. Furthermore, large-scale and comprehensive research on constraints and honeybee diseases were highly recommended to set appropriate solutions.
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Honey Production, Honeybee, Beekeeping, Type of Hive, Households, Risk Factors, Disease, Pests, Gohatsiyon District