ABSTRACT

This study was on the Economics of Bee honey Production by bee farmers in Nsukka Local government Area of Enugu State. Data used in this research were obtained through the use of structured questionnaire and personal interview with bee farmers. Data collected were edited, sorted and tabulated for easy analysis. The analytical tools used were descriptive statistics (such as means, frequencies and simple percentage and multiple regression analysis). Complete costing was used to estimate the profit per nail-a invested which indicates that every NI invested as cost of production yields N3.53 i.e. at the rate of 353%, this result shows that honey production is a lucrative enterprise. The study revealed that the major contributing factors to cost of production were bottles (for packaging) and labour cost as they contributed 26.7% and 8.1% to the total cost of production respectively. The semi-log production function was selected as the lead equation based on the statistical, econometric and economic a prior expectation. Age, number of colonies and farming experience have positive coefficients and were statistically significant at 1% and 5% respectively. Household size has negative coefficient and statistically significant at I% because there is high dependency ratio. The dependent do not take active participation in bee farming and therefore reduce the output of bee honey produced. Constraint which include unavailability of records on honey production and marketing are scanty and without much information for the farmers, lack of credit facilities from financial institution, the fear of being stung etc. affects the quantity of bee honey produced. It was recommended that farmers should therefore be educated on the medicinal and nutritive value of bee honey so as to improve its consumption which would in turn, encourage the farmers to produce more and thereby increasing their profit, Farmers intending to go into apiculture should be encouraged by providing them with already markets for their produce and initial capital and government can also assist the bee farmers by providing them with equipment needed to harness the other sub-produce of the enterprise like bee wax which is also important.