Adoption and intensity of adoption of beekeeping technology by farmers: The case of Sheko Woreda of Bench-Maji Zone, South West Ethiopia

A Albore,D Anshiso,D Abraham

doi:10.15421/2019_716

Abstract

Beekeeping delivers the rural people with sources of income, dietary use, pollination service and social benefit. In spite of the benefits obtained from beekeeping, farmer’s resistivity to adopt the recommended modern beekeeping technological components (packages) is among the major problem. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to examine the intensity of adoption of beekeeping technology package, and identify factors influencing adoption and intensity of adoption of beekeeping technology package in Sheko district. Stratified sampling procedure was used to select sample households. A total of 200 household heads were selected randomly from adopters and non-adopters categories of four potential beekeeping localities. Date was collected by using household survey and key informant interview and analyzed by using censured Tobit model. From sampled households 68% of respondents who have bee hive; the majority of them fall under medium adopters’ category. Variations in intensity of adoption of bee hive components were observed among adopter category. The output of censured Tobit model was indicate that six variables such as total livestock unit, apiary site visit by farmer, perceived cost of technology by farmer, distance of market center from home, knowledge of farmers for bee management and availability of bee hive technology were found to have significant influence on adoption and intensity of adoption of bee hive technological package. Therefore, agricultural policy and development interventions should give emphasis to the improvement of institutional support system so as to achieve wider adoption and intensity of adoption for small scale farmers.

Highlights

Beekeeping is an integral component in agricultural economy of developing countries and produce much more than food, since it contribute to the income, nutrition, natural resource conservation, pollination service and social benefit
It is estimated that the country has the potential to produce 500,000 tons of honey per year, the Current production is less than 10% of its estimated potential (Moard, 2007)
In responding to the above identified gap that this research was conducted in Sheko Woreda of Bench Maji zone

Summary

Introduction

Beekeeping is an integral component in agricultural economy of developing countries and produce much more than food, since it contribute to the income, nutrition (dietary use), natural resource conservation, pollination service and social benefit. The ideal climatic conditions and diversity of bee floral allow the country to sustain around 10 million honeybee colonies, of which 7 million are kept in local beehives by farmers and the remaining, exist in the forests as wild colonies This makes the country to have the highest bee density in Africa (Nuru, 2002). Clear understanding about program related information like socio-economic condition of target groups and identifying the factors that affect the information utilization pattern has paramount importance for appropriate implementation of the program. In this respect, there are no available records on honey production or consumption trends in south west part of Ethiopia. The overall objectives of this study were to examine the intensity of adoption of beekeeping technology; and to determine factors affecting adoption and intensity of adoption of beekeeping technologies

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion