Determinants of poverty among bee farmers: An antidote for apicultural development in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the poverty status of bee-farmers in two ecological zones of Kwara State, Nigeria with modern bee-keeping farmers as a case study. Primary data subjected to a pre-survey which involved structured questionnaire and interview schedule were administered using multistage random technique to selected 80 bee farmers in the two ecological zones. Sixty five percent of bee farmers earned at least .25,000 per annum each and averaged .30,800 from bee production. This shows positive contribution to bee household’s welfare. Majority of the pooled farmers (75%) had subsidiary occupations with average yearly off-farm income of .35,600. This shows that the rural farmers have developed capacity to cope with increasing vulnerability associated with apicultural practices by diversification and migration. The result of logit regression revealed that years of experience; level of education; adjusted household size; number of hives; bee income and non-bee income were found to be significant in poverty determinants of bee farmers. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index analysis estimated a poverty line of .236.50 (US$1.48) per household head per day. The results revealed that improvement in level of training, amount of credit accessed and increasing number of hives invested were inversely related to poverty status of bee farmers. The results also showed prevalence of poverty among rural bee households that utilized open spaces for disposing their faeces, stream water for drinking and local lamp for lightening compared to bee farmers that utilized pit toilets, well water or boreholes and electricity respectively. Keywords : Bee farmers, education, extension contact, poverty