Author(s): John Mwandifura, Lovemore Chikazhe, Josphat Manyeruke and Nilton Mashavakure
Beekeeping in Zimbabwe is a common farming enterprise and income generating activity in rural areas of Manicaland province, thus Chipinge, Chimanimani, Mutasa, Buhera, Mutare, Nyanga and Makoni districts. Promotional efforts were made by non-governmental organizations, such as Worldvision, Plan International, Care International, Red Barner, just to mention a few. This was to improve beekeeping in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe, in order to uplift the standard of living of rural people in Manicaland province. There is no systematic study undertaken to evaluate the promotional efforts by these non-governmental organization and people’s response to the efforts. The objectives of the study were to identify determinants of modern box beehive adoption by the rural beekeepers and to analyze the benefits of adopting modern box beehive technology in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe, thus, Chipinge, Chimanimani, Mutasa, Buhera, Mutare, Nyanga and Makoni districts. The stratified sampling technique was used to identify the respondents. The sample respondents were grouped into adopters and non-adopters of modern box beehive. The results show that 182 were adopters and 219 were non-adopters, identified out of 401 total sampled respondents of beekeepers.
Structured interview schedule, key informant discussion, group discussion and observation were used to collect data and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit model. The logit model shows that education level of household head, credit, Knowledge of beekeeper, perception of beekeeper and extension services were positively influencing adoption of modern box beehive.
It was found out that family size, age, extension services, market availability and beekeeping training were not much influencing adoption of modern box beehive. Ranking of major problems in beekeeping in Manicaland province, revealed that drought; honeybee pests and disease; lack of beekeeping equipment; death of colony; lack of extension services; marketing problem; shortage of bee forage; lack of beekeeping skill and reduction of honeybee colonies were found to be the major problems in Manicaland province in the beekeeping industry in their order of importance. Cost of modern box beehive was also found to be one of the prohibiting factor for the technology adoption.