Abstract
The study was carried out in Hadiya zone to asses honey production systems, challenges and opportunities in the study area. A total of 196 farmers were selected randomly and interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. The result shows most (90.7%) of the beekeepers in the study area have owned only traditional beehives. The average honey yield from traditional, transitional and frame hive was 3.04 ±0.92, 4.9±1.12 and 8.2±2.62 kg/year/hive respectively. There was significance difference (P 0.05) transitional and moveable frame hive between Woredas. Pesticides and herbicides application, shortage of bee forage, presence of pests and predators and shortage of water were found to be the most important constraints of beekeeping in the study area. Despite all the constraints, there is a great potential to increase the production and quality of honey in the district. Strong extension and technical intervention, proper pesticides application, establishing beekeepers cooperative and enhancing bee forage plantation through introducing multi-purpose trees should be encouraged to increase honey production and income of beekeepers in the study area. Key words: Beekeepers, colony, challenges, honey production.
Highlights
Beekeeping is an important agricultural activity in Ethiopia
Primary data were collected on the following aspects: socio-economic demographic data, current practices and placement of bee colony, types of hives, honey yield, inspection of honeybee colonies, honey harvesting, major honeybee flora, honey storage practices, opportunities and major constraints of beekeeping
Secondary data were used to select potential localities based on number of honeybee colonies and honey production acquired from woredas
Summary
Beekeeping is an important agricultural activity in Ethiopia. Owing to its varied ecological and climatic conditions, the country is home to some of the most diverse flora and fauna in Africa. This diversity makes it highly suitable for sustaining a large number of bee colonies (Adgaba, 2007). The country has the largest bee population in Africa. 5.21 million hives is estimated to be found in the rural sedentary areas of the country. From this total hives, 870,544 and 65,961 beehives are from Southern Nations, Nationalities and hadya zone respectively
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