Adoption of Improved Technologies and Management Practices Among Bee Farmers in North Central and North Western Nigeriatowards Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The total honey produced in Nigeria is usually inadequate, not documented and the country augments the
domestic consumption and industrial needs partly from the public based farms,array of diverse honey bee
indigenous farmers and mostly import from other countries. This paper assesses adoption of improved
technologies and management practices nexus efficiency gaps among bee farmers in Nigeria that optimize the
use of available inputs to maximize honey output. A field survey through stratified random sampling, with
questionnaire administration, farm visits and experiments were conducted in 148 honey bee farms comprising
102 traditional and 46 modern honey bee farms inKwara and Kebbi States Nigeria. The tools of analysis were net
margin, double difference estimators and dichotomous regression models. Modern bee farmers were younger,
had more formal education, but less adjusted household size which manifested inenhanced decisions and level of
adoption results, increased output per hive and invariably increased net margin. The constraints to indigenous
apicultural development were not limited only to technologies adoptions and improved management practices
in nature, but also related to socio-economic and rural development. Empirical result indicates that the decision
to adopt and level of adoption of improved techniques and practices had slight variations and where it does, not
either by the same coefficients, direction, magnitude orstructure. Honey bee farmers’ and relevant government
agencies should collaborate to ensure gradual adoption of improvedmanagement practices and environmentally
adaptable techniques capable of increasing the output and make efficient use of the abundant apicultural
resources. This could be an impetus to achieving sustainable honey production, and possible transition of this
sector from subsistence to commercial and export production to support globally, the new Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).