Assessment of Honey Production System and Beekeeping Practices in Bako Tibe District, Oromia Regional State, Western Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, beekeeping is a deep-rooted traditional practice; of all the countries in the world no country has a longer tradition of beekeeping than Ethiopia (Ayalew and Gezahegn, 1991). Beekeeping serves as economic, social and cultural and nutrition benefit to all actors in the value chain and plays an important role in improving crop productivity all over the world (Kumari and Kumar, 2019). Owing to its varied ecological and climatic conditions, Ethiopia is home to some of the most diverse flora and fauna in Africa. Its forests and woodlands contain diverse plant species that provide surplus nectar and pollen to foraging bees (Fichlt and Admasu, 1994). As a result, the country is with the largest honeybee colony population and the leading honey and beeswax producer in Africa.
       
Despite the long tradition of beekeeping in Ethiopia, having the highest bee density and being the leading honey producer as well as one of the largest beeswax exporting countries in Africa, the share of the sub-sector in the Gross Domestic Product has never been commensurate with the huge numbers of honeybee colonies and the country’s potentiality for beekeeping. Productivity has always been low, leading to low utilization of hive products domestically and relatively low export earnings. Thus, the beekeepers in particular and the country in general are not benefiting from the sub sector (Nuru, 2002). This constraint was further aggravated by inadequate extension coverage, lack of skills, limited beekeeping training and research in the beekeeping sector. Because of these and other related factors, the region and the rural beekeepers have not sufficiently benefited from the beekeeping subsector (Gidey and Mekonen,2010 and Ayalew, 2001). However, in order to reduce poverty, focusing on high potential areas of agricultural sector and making them more productive is of paramount importance.
       
Production system study is important to identify problems and come up with relevant solution to the problems that lead to formulate appropriate development plan.

The study was carried out in Bako Tibe district, Western Showa zone, Oromia Regional State, located  250 km from Addis Ababa, Western Ethiopia, from November 2013 to March 2014 t at Jimma University Biology department.
       
The study was based on community-based cross-sectional survey based on the representativeness from the three agro ecological zones with respect to honeybee colonies potential, 6 Kebeles administrations (Lowland 3, Mid-land 2 and High land 1) were selected out of 28 Kebeles administrations in the district using purposive sampling technique (Palys,2008). Per Kebele administration 20 beekeepers a total of 120 respondents from the three agro ecological zones were selected by systematic sampling method (Murthy and Rao, 1988).
       
Prior to the actual survey information was gathered from secondary data from reports of district Agricultural Development Office and informal consultation with key informants. Based on the information obtained from secondary data and informal survey, a structured questionnaire was developed and pre-tested for its consistency and applicability to the objectives of the study. The primary data was collected from sample respondents through the semi-structured questionnaire.
       
Focus group discussion was conducted with potentially honey producers of beekeepers, extension workers (development agents) from Kebeles administration of three agro ecology and beekeeping extensions of the district. The statistical analysis used for survey study was descriptive statistics using SPSS version 16.0 to mainly analyses parameters like mean, Cross tab and frequency. The qualitative data gathered through group discussion were summarized by putting the same responses in the same category.

From the total of 120 respondents interviewed to generate qualitative and quantitative data on beekeeping, about 99.2% were males and the rest 0.8% were females. The study showed that, very limited number of females engaged in beekeeping.The main reason for low participation of female could be attributed to the forest beekeeping system of the area that culturally prohibit women involvement in beekeeping for the reason they cannot climb up the tree either to bait swarm bees or to undertake beekeeping by hanging on big tree. This was in line with the reports of Hartmann (2004) who noted beekeeping as the man’s job in Ethiopia and Solomon (2009) who indicated beekeeping as main activity of male in Bale highlands of South East Ethiopia.
       
The mean age of respondents was 34.97 years (range 20 to 68 years).This survey result showed that people in the most productive age were actively engaged in beekeeping activities and the beekeepers had an average experience of 17.2+7.4 years(range from 1 to 36 years). This indicates that the beekeepers of the area had long beekeeping experience and were actively engaged starting from an early age in helping older parents to undertake basic tasks. Similar study was undertaken by Aseffa (2009) and Workneh (2007) who documented that beekeepers with longer beekeeping experience were able to adopt the use of improved box hive than beekeepers with short beekeeping experience.
       
The knowledge of beekeepers differs from beekeeper to beekeeper and from area to area, based on their experiences, training and educational level. When beekeepers were asked to explain how they started beekeeping, 22.5% started beekeeping by learning from neighbours. About 51.7% learned beekeeping practices from their parents, while about 17.5% of the respondents reported that they were learned about beekeeping from others such as, friends, respectively (Fig 1).
 

       
Only 8.3% of the respondents acquired beekeeping knowledge through training, this indicates that little work has been done in promoting beekeeping practice in the study area. The main reason to start beekeeping from the family was experience during the early stage.
       
Beekeepers of the study area kept their honeybee colonies in different areas among which about 41.7% at backyard, 28.3%, 27.5%, 2.5% under the roof of the house, both under roof of house and in forest (hanging on the tree) and in forest, respectively (Table 1).
 

       
Only few beekeepers put modern beehives and transitional beehives near their house (backyard) and/or in forest (Plate 1). Most of the respondents in the study area kept their hives in the back yard. This might help them to manage easily their colonies to provide shelter, provide feed and water frequently and protect them from bee enemies. Similar result also reported by Maeza (2010) and Nuru (2002) who showed that some beekeepers distributed their hive along all apiary site in most part  of the country in order to protect their bee colony.
 

 
Beekeeping practices
 
About 91.7% of respondents practiced traditional beekeeping. Traditional beekeeping is the most predominant in the district. This could be due to the lack of knowledge, experience, limited training, access of credit and low awareness to adopt the transitional and modern hives. This was in line with the finding of the study by Amsalu et al., (2004) who reported that beekeeping practice in Ethiopia was pre dominantly traditional. The average yield obtained from a given traditional hive per annum in the survey area was about 10.1kg/hive (range 5kg to 15kg/hive).
       
Based on the survey result, about 87.5% of respondents made honey harvesting only once per year, while 12.5% harvest two times per year. This result was agreed with Tessaga (2009) and Chala (2010) they reported that honey was harvested once or twice in Bure and Gomma district, respectively. The study shows that, 81.7%, of the respondents’ harvest their honey from November to December and the second round was April to May. Similar results also reported by Mathewos et al., (2004) and CSA (2008) who indicated that the majority honey flow season was November to December in different parts of Ethiopia.
       
During the survey period it was observed that beekeepers did not manage the place of bee hive properly. The result agreed with the study of Gebereyesus (1976) who reported that beekeepers do not pay much attention to bee management activities, but harvest honey when it is there by killing the bees, which is very common in many part of the country even today. To this fact, the study group reported that  training of beekeepers was one of the essential inputs in the beekeeping sector in order to carryout proper colony management, increase yield, to attain good management practice, to sustain business, appropriate input utilization, honey quality maintenance and handling, honey bee forage development and pest and disease control.
       
The study revealed that, honey harvested with brood can be spoiled rapidly and should be separated at harvesting time from the pure honeycombs. According to this study, only 16.5% of the respondents separated honey from beeswax and sale it as pure honey at local to different governmental workers and others.
       
The beekeepers reported that they sold the largest proportion of their honey during harvesting season at low price mainly to meet their demand for cash to pay taxes, debts and other social obligations. The result is in agreement with Beyene and David (2007) ensuring small scale producers in Ethiopia to achieve sustainable and fair access to honey markets. The quantified honey yields were more of estimations by the respondents. This could be due to the fact that it was difficult to accurately determine (lack of measuring instruments) the honey produced in the study area as most of beekeepers were not correctly weigh the amount of honey harvested.
       
The survey result show that the average mean honey produced in the study area is 10.1, 18.5 and 29.6 for honey produced from Traditional, Transitional and modern hive respectively (Table 2). Honey yield of the study area was increasing as compared to national average of honey which is 5 kg, 12-15 kg and 15-20 kg, respectively for traditional, intermediate and movable frame hives, respectively which reported by (MOARD, 2003;Gezahegne, 2001). The survey conducted in West Showa Zone showed that, average honey yield of traditional hives was 6.1 kg per hive per annum (Edessa, 2002). Bezabih (2010) and Edessa (2005) was reported that the current honey production in Ethiopia increased. This might be due to the introduction of transitional hive, modern hive and policy guidance of beekeeping for beekeepers in several parts of the country. However, the amount of honey produced in a given area may depend on the availability of bee flower and the level of bee management knowledge of beekeepers in the study area. The necessity of artificial diets to honey bees during dearh period has been the long-standing interest of the beekeeping industry and most enduring apicultural research problem (Grandi et al., 2008).
 

       
The result of honey proposed in the study area is in line with the study co conducted by Musumhi (2013) in other country like China the average honey produced from modern hive was between 50-150 kg of honey per hive, whereas several African countries average 15-25 kg per hive. The difference shows that, still less attention is given to honey production system and there is inadequate training, lack of using technology to increase the yield in Ethiopia.
       
In the study area, about 83.3% of the beeswax produced was wasted for not having understood its values. The major reason was lack of knowledge of its use, lack of processing skill how to harvest it, absence of demand in the local market and lack of processing material. The same results also reported by CSA (2008) and Tessega (2009) who described that beeswax is mostly left or thrown away in Bure distinct of Amara region. Fitchtl and Admasu (1994) also reported that in several regions of Ethiopia, beeswax collection is not significant and considered as wastes.
       
Based on the results of this survey, 71.7% of respondents reported that honeybee enemies as major reason for honeybee colony absconding.  From this, about 45% of the account was taken by ants (Dorylus fulvus). These results with regard to the effects of ants (Dorylus fulvus) on honey bees agree with different studies conducted so far (Desalegn, 2001). Similar result also reported by Kumar and Agrawal (2013) In India bee colonies attacked by various bee enemies like black ants, bee eating birds,Varroa mite. All these factors lead to quick dwindling and sometimes even perishing of bee colonies. To overcome the problem, beekeepers have developed their own indigenous knowledge. Some of the methods were: dusting ash under the hive stand, plastering the hive stand with plastic materials finding, some of them using burned oil and killing the queen of ants.

There were very limited numbers of females engaged in beekeeping practice in the study area. Based on the result, people in the most productive age are actively engaged in beekeeping activities with having a moderate experience of beekeeping. In the district, three types of beekeeping systems namely: Traditional beekeeping, Transitional beekeeping and Modern beekeeping systems have been observed. More than 91.7% of the respondents were engaged in traditional beekeeping, whereas 8.3% practiced the combination of all traditional, transitional and modern beekeeping systems. The district had adequate natural resources and a long tradition of beekeeping. However, mainly because of lack of technological, institutional supports and access to market and value chain development, the district in general and the rural beekeepers in particular have not been sufficiently benefited from the sub sector. Yet, despite all the constraints and challenges currently facing the beekeeping sub-sector, there are still enormous opportunities and potentials to boost the production and quality of honey production in the district.