Community Perception on Beekeeping Practices, Management, and Constraints in Termaber and Basona Werena Districts, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Adequate forage availability coupled with favorable and diversified agroclimatic conditions of Ethiopia creates environmental conditions conducive to the growth of over 7000 species of flowering plants which have supported the existence of large number of bee colonies in the country. Despite its potential of honey production, the contribution of apiculture to state GDP is far below its expectation and not well estimated yet. The objective of this study was to assess community perception in beekeeping management and constraints in central Ethiopia. 384 household heads were randomly selected from eight sentinel kebeles. Semistructured questionnaire, in-depth interview, and focus group discussions were employed to gather data. Chi-square ( 2 ) test was used to determine association. Three beekeeping management systems, namely, traditional, transitional, and modern beekeeping, were documented. Beekeeping was reported to create job opportunity for landless men and women for their livelihood and needs low capital to start. Significant difference ( < 0.05) in beekeeping management activities between two districts was reported. Even though honey production is increasing, the trends of transferring traditional beekeeping to modern beekeeping practice showed a decline. Training and building capacity for hive management, colony feeding, and honey harvesting should be put in place in order to improve honey production.

Characterization of the Beekeeping Value Chain: Challenges, Perceptions, Limitations, and Opportunities for Beekeepers in Kayonza District, Rwanda

“…The majority (86 %) of the respondents were adult males compared to 6% adult females and 8 % male and female youths combined ( Figure 1 and Table 1). Our results showing male dominance of the beekeeping vocation are in agreement with several other studies on the African continent and beyond with percentages ranging from 68 to 95% across the border in Uganda [13,19], around 82-100% [16,25,26] in Ethiopia, to as high as 100% in the Federal Capital territory, Abuja, Nigeria [12]. However, the high representation of males in the beekeeping vocation goes against the grain of the general perception that the majority of rural farmers are women and the fact that there are more women (52%) than men (48%) in Rwanda [27].…”

“…Thus the production system was largely traditional and modern. Berhe and coworkers identified a "third way" (production system) that is called the transitional system [16].…”

“…Bees are a barometer of the health of natural ecosystems, pollinators of forests, horticultural and agricultural crops [13], and they are also kept for their marketable products. Such products include honey, which is used for both food and medicinal purposes [14,15], wax, propolis, royal jelly, and pollen [16,17]. In Wisconsin, it has been demonstrated that beekeeping has the capacity of improving crop yields many times over for cranberry farmers [18].…”

Beekeeping practice and honey production potential in Afar Regional State, Ethiopia

“…The districts are very special for their diversified shrubs, trees, and herbaceous species such as Acacia mellifera, Ziziphus spina-christi, Ziziphus mucronata, Acacia horrid, Balanites aegyptica, Acacia tortilis, Grewia ferruginea, Grewia penicillata, Salvadora persica, Acacia nilotica, Acacia Senegal, Acacia seyal, Leucas abyssinica, Hypostus auriculata, Becium grandiorum, Dobera glabra, Opuntia, Cordia sinensis, Aloe elegance, Bidens macroptera, Acacia pilispina, etc. These floral species are not similar with floras in other areas of Ethiopia [13,22,33,41,[44][45][46][47][48]. The plants bloom in different seasons of the year, which assures a continuous supply of food for bees.…”

“…Poor extension service, enemies and disease, shortage of water, poor knowledge, and shortage of improved technology are the top-ranked constraints. The rank of constraints in the study area is different from constraints ranked in other parts of the country [21,25,45,50,[52][53][54]. The difference might be due to the different agro-ecological characteristics and production system.…”