Abstract:
The objective of the study was to analyze economic factors that affect honey
production and marketing in Hai District. Specific objectives were (i) to analyse
profitability of honey production (ii) to assess efficiency of honey marketing and
role-played by various market participants (iii) to evaluate contribution of
beekeeping to household income and (iv) suggest intervention strategies to improve
the existing situation. A cross sectional research design was adopted, the sample size
of 80 respondents obtained through both simple random and purposive sampling
techniques. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods for data
analysis in order to address the objectives of the study. Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) 11.5 was used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that
beekeeping is a household viable enterprise. Beekeepers owned on average 1-30
beehives and earned Tshs 37 850 as gross profit per one beehive. It was also
observed that 84% of the sampled beekeepers didn’t process honey into other
valuable forms including wax. Processed honey and waxes earn more income
compared to raw honey by about 30% higher. Constraints to honey and beeswax
production as identified by respondents include: insects, legal access to forest reserve
and drought as identified by 24.4%, 22.3% and 16.4% of the sample beekeepers
respectively. Marketing constraints identified were low prices of honey (83.4% of
the sampled beekeepers) and no strong market for honey products (16.6% of the
sampled beekeepers). From this study it is concluded that beekeeping enterprise
contributes to household cash income of Tshs 10 000-221 000 per year with a mean
of Tshs 215 659 and it was seen that the contribution of beekeeping sector to the
household income is significant. Meaningful interventions to enhance the
competitiveness of the value chain should start with organizing the players, letting
them build a platform to interact addressing key chain issues. Any organization
already involved in the establishing a supply chain of honey should be fully
supported by all stakeholders. On the overall, despite its potential, it has failed to
attract investment and therefore has remained at subsistence level. Government at all
level and CSOs need to join efforts to commercialize the sector. Whatever efforts we
do, market is the determining factor, e.g. why improve quality if the market is not
ready to pay an extra cost for quality products? Since entry into export market
requires strict quality products, let us develop the local market, which shall form the
springboard for exports.
