Economics of Beekeeping in Ganye Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study was carried out in Ganye local government area of Adamawa State on the “Economics of Beekeeping”. A total of 46 beekeepers was randomly selected and interviewed in the study area. Well-structured questionnaire (46) was employed to collect useful and relevant data from the respondents. The data collected were analysis using descriptive statistics, gross margin, profitability ratio analysis and multiple regression analysis. The result of socio-economic characteristics of the respondents shows that 67.39% of the beekeepers were within the highly productive age range of 30 – 49 years with most (91.3%) of the beekeepers being male. The results of gross margin and profitability analysis indicates net farm income of N45,210.00, return on investment per naira is N1.34. This indicates that beekeeping is a lucrative enterprise. The result of multiple regression analysis showed that age, sex educational level beekeeping experience number of hives labour cost cost of hives were all positively related to productivity. The coefficient of transportation cost was negatively related and is not significant. The coefficient of educational level and beekeeping experience were positive and significant at 1% level of probability. The coefficient of number of hives and cost of hives were positive and were significant at 5% and 10% respectively. The identified problems include inadequate capital, lack of good storage facilities, high cost of packaging materials, transportation problem, low yield, technology too expensive, inadequate skilled manpower and theft. Based on the findings it was recommended that government should subsidize inputs for the farmers, assist them with loan and give them proper orientation on the benefit of beekeeping