Factors Affecting the Adoption of Beekeeping and Associated Technologies in Matara District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

In Sri Lankan prospect, limited research and development in beekeeping has been conducted. Efforts to increase production would require proper assessment of the factors affecting the adoption of beekeeping and associated technologies. This study was undertaken to assess the factors affecting the adoption of beekeeping and associated technologies in Matara district. A total of 21 beekeepers were purposively selected to respond to a standard questionnaire. Results revealed that majority of the farmers (61.9%) were in the age group of above 50 years, predominantly males (85.71%), and have passed A/L examination (76.19%). The bee farming shows a new entrepreneurship paradigm accounting that the most of the farmers are having experience for 11-15 years (57.14%). Unfortunately no farmers were engaged in apiculture in commercial level or as a full time employment. Though constrained by lack of equipment, bad weather, pests, lack of credit facilities, and poor extension services, the farmers do generate income, from selling honey. All the participants (100%) owned Langstroth hives and produce an average 2.5 L of honey is produced from three fully functioning hives. All the farmers are expecting to expand their apiary due to the demand for pure honey by an average of 2.5% within next five years. The major factors affecting the adoption of beekeeping enterprise include the fear for bee stings, lack of awareness, inability to meet the starting capital, inadequate knowledge and skills, inadequate information about the technology and value addition. The multiple regression model revealed that adoption index is affected by the age of the farmer (years), education level (primary, secondary or tertiary), experience in beekeeping (years), size of the apiary (number of hives), extension services (number of sources of information), training received (Yes/No) and access to credit. Among these factors, age of the farmer, education level, experience in beekeeping and extension services were significant (P-value≤ 0.05). It is concluded that, the following key actions must be taken to address the constraints on adopting beekeeping and associated technologies: (i) increase awareness programmes and trainings (ii) strengthen small-scale systems by diversifying product assortment and value addition (iii) improve market and credit.