Opportunity and Constraints of Beekeeping in Horo District, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was aimed at identifying potential opportunities and constraints of beekeeping in Horo district, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. Formal and informal survey methods were used to collect information of secondary data and response on structured questionnaires. For the study 30 household beekeepers from each kebele at total of one hundred eighty households were selected randomly from both highland and midland agro-ecology. From 180 household head interviewed 98.9% were male headed and the rest 1.1% were female headed households. 90% of respondents attended primary and junior school level education. The major opportunities to engage on honeybee beekeeping were presence of governmental organization and Non-governmental Organization that works on beekeeping towards its improvement, readiness of beekeepers to accept new technology, presence of huge numbers of honeybee colony, availability of lending institutions, beekeepers' experience, soil and water conservation practices of the area, abundant honeybee forages, sufficient water sources for honeybees and marketing situation of honeybee products. Whereas, the major constraints that affects beekeeping in the district were pesticide and herbicide application (17.8%), pests (16.1%), beekeeping equipment (14.4%), shortage of bee forage (11.7%), lack of improved beehive (10%), migration (7.8%), Absconding (7.2%), lack of extension services (5.6%), swarming (3.9%) and dearth of bee colony (2.2%). Generally, the high potential is manifested with abundance of honeybees, availability of honeybee flora, demand of honeybee product in market and experience of honey beekeeper in the areas. These potentials were under exploited due to existence of constraints demanding immediate intervention, particularly on improved technology adoption and frequent improvement of beekeepers knowledge and skill is mandatory.