Adaptation Trial of Improved Bee Forages in West Hararghe Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted at Mechara Agriculture Research station and in Gemechis district kunisekeria FTC for two consecutive cropping seasons of, 2018 and 2019, with the objective of identifying adaptable and potential bee forages for honey production. Five herbaceous bee forages were sown in 2mX2m plot size in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replication. The bee forages were evaluated based on germination efficiency days to flower, number of flower heads/plant and intensity of honeybees on flowers. The result indicated that, there were mean difference for germination date, blooming date, flowering length, number of flower heads/plant for all study plant species. Among the study bee forage plants, both black and white buckwheat’s were take short day to flower with mean value of 20 and 24 days. Similarly Sinapis alba was take a short day to flowering at Kuni sakaria FTC while Sinapis alba at Kuni sakaria FTC has the highest mean value in duration of blooming (45) days followed by white buck wheat at both site (43) days. Coriander has highest flower per head/plant (92) at both site followed by Sinapis at Kuni sakaria FTC. There was mean difference in bee visit between each plant species at all study sites. Coriander was highly visited by honey bees at Kuni sakaria FTC followed by white buckwheat at both site. In general, both black and white type of buckwheat and Coriander had high performance in lowland and highland of the zone whereas Phacelia tanacetifolia and Sinapis alba showed good performance at highland part of the study area. Therefore, further demonstration and scaling-up is needed at recommended area for the respective similar agro ecology of the West Harerghe Zone.