Assessment of beekeeping practices and physicochemical properties of honey produced in doyogena and kachabira districts of kembata tambaro zone, southern ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess beekeeping practices and evaluation of the Physicochemical properties of honey produced in Doyogena and Kachabira districts, of Kembata Tambaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Respondents for the study were selected by simple random sampling technique. A total of 183 households were selected and interviewed. To acquire the necessary data of survey part-of the study individual interview by pre-tested questionnaire and monitoring were used as a tool for data collection method. The data collected through the survey were analyzed by SPSS software. For the laboratory evaluation a total of eighteen (18) honey samples were collected. Of the total of 18 honey samples, 12 (6 from highland and 6 from midland) were purposively taken directly from the beekeepers from frame beehive and 6 honey samples were randomly taken from six shops. The main parameters analyzed were color, moisture, EC, ash, reducing sugar, F/G ratio, G/W ratio, fructose, glucose, fructose + glucose, sucrose, HMF, pH and free acidity. These parameters were evaluated in the HBRC laboratory and results were analyzed by SAS software. Beekeeping practices were principally practiced by males 92.3%. In the study area 88.9%, 1.9% and 9.2% of beekeepers keep their honeybee colonies in traditional, transitional and frame beehives respectively. Catching wild swarms of honeybees was the main source of colonies for beekeepers. Based on the beekeepers estimation the mean honey yield or productivity from the traditional, transitional and frame beehives in the study area was 9.49±0.32, 14.16±0.56 and 22.47±0.58 kg/hive/year respectively. Regarding the containers utilized for honey handling and storage 82%, 9.8% and 8.2% of beekeepers have used a plastic bucket, clay pot and plastic bucket + clay pot in combination. About 52.4% of the beekeepers reported that they store honey for 1-6 months. Indiscriminate agro-chemical application (0.132), pests’ as well as predators prevalence (0.123), and expensiveness and unavailability of frame beehives (0.14) were the principal identified beekeeping constraints. Favorable agro-ecology (0.26), flora presence (0.20) and colony presence (0.164) were the opportunities of beekeeping. The result of laboratory work indicated that the mean value of moisture, electrical conductivity, ash, reducing sugar, F/G ratio, G/W ratio, fructose, glucose, fructose + glucose, sucrose, HMF, pH and free acidity was, 18.83±0.69 g/100g, 0.58±0.03 mS-1cm, 0.25±0.02 g/100g, 68.55±0.56 g/100g, 1.05±0.03, 1.78±0.08, 34.22±0.55 g/100g, 32.61±0.70 g/100g, 66.83±0.44 g/100g, 2.54±0.40 g/100g, 3.42±1.95 mg/kg, 4.03±0.21 and 13.39±1.43 meq/kg respectively. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) between districts in terms of moisture and pH. Significant difference (P<0.01) was declared among agro-ecologies in terms of the moisture, glucose to water ratio and free acidity. Furthermore, a significant difference (P<0.05) was observed between agro-ecologies concerning electrical conductivity and ash. There was a statistically significant difference (P<0.01) between the honeys of the retailer shop and farm gate sources concerning moisture content, electrical conductivity, ash, reducing sugar, G/W ratio, sucrose, HMF, and free acidity. Honey color varied from extra light amber to amber with extra light amber (66.7%) being the dominant color. The results of this study indicated that there was a lower performance beekeeping system under the smallholder beekeepers condition. The result of laboratory work indicated that all the physicochemical parameters of honey evaluated lie within the range of national and international standards. Therefore, strong efforts have to be made to improve beekeeping systems through extension intervention.