Honey Production System And Yield Gap In Selected Zones Of South-Western Oromia, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to pinpoint the key elements that limit honey production in the Oromia regional state. Descriptive statistics and an OLS econometric model were used for the data analysis. The findings demonstrated that beekeeping is still a male-dominated industry where 88%, 77%, and 44% of families, relied on traditional, modern, and transitional beehives, respectively. However, the productivity of the traditional beehives was below the expected value, even though more than 55% of the total beehive was traditional. In general, the yield of all beehives in the study area indicated a larger yield gap from both environmental and technological aspects. Particularly, the index of yield gap of traditional beehives was very large (89%) against the modern beehive, which indicates a big loss for the country. Hence, there is a huge opportunity for increasing honey production, either through enhanced farmer efficiency or technological transformation. Thus, the study recommends that the extension system should focus on both improving the production efficiency of the farmers, transforming beekeeping, and shifting beehive placement to boost honey production.