Assessment of thepesticide use practice and its hazards on beekeeping in Kersa woreda jimma zonesouth west Ethiopia

Abstract

The honey bee (Apismellifera L.)produces honey and cross-pollinates plants for improved socio-economic well being. However its colony populations globally and locally have been declining. In Kersa district, Jimma zone of Oromia regional state, hive colonization and honey yields have been low, this is due to the decline in honeybee population believed to be caused by pesticides use and pests and disease attack.The main purpose of this study wasto study the effect of pesticides use on honeybee and honey production. From the 32kebeles of the study district eight peasant association kebeles were purposely selected. From 231,101 population of the district there wasabout2500 beekeeping households found .Eight rural kebeles were purposely determined to represent the district. Sample respondents were determined using the Krejcie and Morgan(1970) table of sample selection. A total of 330beekeeping households were drawn from eight Kebeles using systematic random sampling technique and administered with questionnaire and data about the general background to the household; Knowledge and perception as well as Pesticides use, practice and effects on beekeeping was collected accordingly and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Closed ended questionnaire was translated into local language, and data was gathered by trained enumerators.. From the respondents view and observation in this study it is evident that to report Majority68.5% of the respondents used both manual method and different types of pesticides to control pests and weeds than manual method which was only(22.4%) About 20% applied pesticides at flowering stage;51.5% sprayed in the morning;71.5% applied pesticides weekly and 24.5% applied biweekly;61.8%applied mixture of pesticides for efficacy reason. More than 55.6% of the farmers in the district agreed that pesticides use increased honeybee mortality rate and hence 90.4% observed a change in colony strength dynamics;41.2% observed reduced colony size;43.6% observed the colony as low honey yielder. More than 79%of the respondents agreed that pesticides use increased honey bee mortality rate hence reduced honey yield.54.5% of them revealed that they observed dead bees in the hives and 57.6% observed dead bees in the spray field. Pesticides were handled, misused and improperly managed in the study district. Farmers should be sensitized on safe pesticide handling. This information would guide the development of proper pesticides handling strategies