Determination of the constraints to bee keeping and adoption of the beekeeping technologies in Manafwa town council, Manafwa district

Abstract

Beekeeping is the rearing of honey bees for the production of bee products like honey, bee wax, propolis and royal jelly that can be sold to generate income for bee farmers. Honey bees are ecologically more important as they are effective pollinators of flowering plants. Despite the benefits of beekeeping and honey production, there was low honey production in Manafwa town council. So there was a need to determine the constraints to beekeeping and the adoption of scientific bee keeping practices in Manafwa Town Council. A mixed-methods approach, comprising surveys, interviews using questionnaires and field observations to validate what was got from the interviews using the observation checklists which was employed to collect data from 80 beekeeping farmers who at least owned three beehives and above and these were selected using purposive sampling. The data collected was cleaned, edited, coded and entered in SPSS for analysis. Results indicated that cultural norms significantly impacted beekeeping engagement, with traditional gender roles influencing low participation of women in the bee keeping practice. Education levels were found to have contributed the adoption of modern beekeeping technologies, emphasizing the need for targeted educational programs. Honeybee diseases, notably American foulbrood, Nosema, and European foulbrood and pests like ants and termites were identified as major concerns affecting bee colonies resulting to absconding of bees, death of bee and loss of honey and lack of adequate bee forage in the apiary site was also observed. The study also revealed prevalent constraint in honey processing was lack of quality honey processing equipment’s by all the respondents. For the case of marketing of honey, it was found out that the major challenge faced by bee farmers was lack of reliable market for their honey whereby most of the bee farmers could end up selling their product to local shops and just few of them sold on town market. In terms of beekeeping technologies, a noteworthy finding was the predominant use of modern hive types, particularly among educated beekeepers. However, challenges in acquiring these technologies were evident due to financial constraints and limited awareness. According to the findings, it was concluded that the involvement of women in beekeeping activities within the surveyed households was significantly lower compared to males. The study indicated that the first constraints to bee keeping were in bee production as most of the farmers lacked managerial skills, secondly, were the constraints faced by beekeeping farmers in honey processing which were due to lack of honey processing equipment’s and lastly, were the constraints faced by the beekeeping farmers during honey marketing which were due to unreliable market for the produced honey. Finally, the current study showed that adoption of bee keeping technologies was hampered by several factors mostly lack skills, credit, lack of training and other factors like poor market, expensive bee equipment and labor shortage. Based on the conclusions, recommendations include targeted training programs to enhance beekeeping knowledge, financial support initiatives for startup capital, awareness campaigns to challenge cultural norms and creating cooperative to create reliable market for honey in the town council. The farmers should adopt improved bee hives and good harvesting technics and attend training on bee keeping to widen their knowledge and experience in bee keeping. These findings provide a foundation for informed decision-making and the development of policies aimed at overcoming the identified constraints and fostering sustainable beekeeping practices in Manafwa Town Council.