ANALYSIS OF HONEY HARVESTING COMPETENCIES OF BEE FARMERS FOR IMPROVING HONEY HARVESTING FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN SOUTH EAST ZONE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated honey harvesting competences of bee farmers for improving production efficiency for poverty reduction in South east zone of Nigeria. Survey research
design was adopted for the study. The population for the study was 781 respondents, which comprised 590 Agricultural Extension Officers and 191 registered Bee farmers in the Zone.
A sample size of 474 respondents, comprising 372 Agricultural Extension Officers and 102 Bee Farmers was drawn using simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher. The instrument was face validated by experts. A reliability coefficient of 0.73 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Mean with standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of
significance and at  appropriate degree of freedom. The study found that the ten (10) competencies examined in the study regarding honey harvesting were possessed at low extent and that the ten (10) strategies identified in the study were reliable enough for improving the bee farmers' competencies. The study also showed that bee farmers competencies improvement depend on the relevant and appropriate extension education adopted by the extension officers in delivering the extension package. Based on these findings, it was recommended that all the identified competencies strategies for successful
bee farming should be incorporated into the extension package for bee farmers delivered to
them properly by extension officers, and that bee farmers should be encouraged to develop
competencies in bee farming by involving them through learning by doing not utilizing casual workers.