چكيده لاتين :
تحليل برخي اقدامات زنبورداران و تاثير آن بر عملكرد زنبورستانهاي منطقه اشنويه
1
59
Analysis of some beekeepers activities and their effect on
apiary performance in
O
shnavieh region
E Hajalian
1
, A Shams
2*
and R Masoumi
3
Received:
September 1, 2016
Accepted:
January 26, 2017
1
MSc in Agricultural Extension and Education, University of Zanjan
, Zanjan, Iran
2
Associate
Professor, Department of Agr
icultural Extension, Communication & Rural Development,
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan,
Zanjan, Iran
*
Corresponding Author: Email:
shams@znu.ac.ir
Introduction
: Beekeeping as an economic activity, while preventing the degradation of pastures
and forests in developing countries, has many opportunities for improving the livelihoods of small
farmers by engaging them in this work (Masuku
2013
; Ja'afar
-
Furo 2014). Despite the expected
important role of beekeeping in improving the livelihoods of farmers, jobs related to bees generally,
have a low income (Mirmohammad Sadeghi
et al.
2007).
Several factors such as climate, vegetation
(Golchin
and Jalali 2013; Karimi et al.
2009
) and human factors (management and knowledge)
affect the performance of beekeepers. If production in the agricultural and livestock sectors is due to
three major sources of land, labor and capital,
without the factor of
management
it is incidental to
produce
. The returns of both physical and economic factors generally depend on the manager's skill
in the combination of resources in an appropriate and efficient manner (
Nuthall
2006; Daneshvar
K
h
aki
2010
). It should be
emph
asized
that although the beekeeper has no control over
environmental and climatic factors,
an
empowered
beekeeper can make the most use of climate and
environmental conditions by making appropriate decisions.
Therefore, there is a need for planning
to impr
ove the performance and productivity of this activity, and this involves understanding the
production
status of beekeepers and their actions. According to the Agricultural Jihad Organization
of the West Azerbaijan province in 2013, average honey production
per
colony
(yield),
was 19.3 kg
in the province, while average production was reported in Osnavieh region equals 6.6 kg.
Distribution of yield among beekeepers in the region was also significant. The range of yield varies
from
3
kilograms to 40 kilograms
per hive unit (Abdi, personal communications 2014). Therefore,
the main issue of the present research was why, despite the almost similar conditions in the region,
there is a meaningful difference between beekeepers? Therefore, the present study assumes th
at
some of these differences are attributable to beekeeper
'
s breeding practices. In this regard, different
activities of beekeepers, as a result of their knowledge and management skills, effect on the
performance of their apiary. The aim of this study was
to investigate the effect of different activities
of beekeepers on apiary yield.
Material and
m
ethods
:
This
research work was conducted in Oshnavieh region in the district of
West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The target groups were the beekeepers which their
numbers are
estimated to be 218 household
s. Cochrane’s sampling formula
was adopted to
get
the appropriate
sample size for this research, which involved 115 of beekeepers. Samples selected through
randomized sampling method. Information related to
hony
bee
production system was recorded by
interviewing the farmers in their farm unit, using a structured questionnaire (research tool). The
questionnaire included several sections.
The dependent variable was the performance of the apiary
in
2015
and in this rese
arch, income per
hive
was used to measure the yield.
The data obtained were
managed, collected and analyzed using Excel and
SPSS
20
. The descriptive analysis was used to
describe the sampled population in the study. The correlation test was used to describe
the relationship between variables and multiple linear
regressions
was used to explore the effective
variables on the yield of beekeepers.
Results and
d
iscussion
: the results showed that all beekeepers were male and most of them
(95.7%) were married. The
average age of beekeepers was 40
years;
most of them (40%) were in
the age group of 29 to 41 years old. Most respondents (83.5%) live in the village and among
respondents, 105 were heads of household. 99 beekeepers were trained in beekeeping. Based on the
results of this research, beekeeping was the main occupation of 74.8% of the respondents and the
remaining 25.2% were occupied by beekeeping as the second occupation. The average number of
hives in the apiary was 218 hive, and 70% of beekeepers had less th
an 250 hives. Average sugar
consumption per hive was
17.35
kg. More than 92% of beekeepers migrate
their
honey colonies
,
with a mean distance of 357 km. The results showed that almost all beekeepers use beekeeping
clothing (hats, gloves, clothing, etc) and
bee brush, but in contrast, a small number of beekeepers
use artificial insemination and bee venom collector. Results showed that beekeepers had 40
different activities related to the production system. Average income per hive was about 1950000
rails. Cor
relation analysis revealed that education and actions of beekeepers e.g. Considering
standard space of hive placement, migration (movement), considering health issues, removing sick
hives from the field had positive significant correlation with farm yield
(P<0.05)
,
but there were
negative significant correlation between farm yield with variables e.g. Age, years of experience and
queen replacement frequency
(P<0.05)
. Regression analysis revealed that explained 40 percent of
farm yield.
Conclusion
:
The resul
t of regression analysis showed that
two variables including the amount of
sugar feeding and second migration distance
is determining 39.8% of the farm
yield variance
.