Assessing the Economic Returns of Modern and Traditional Beehives

Kiprono Naftali (), Gitau Raphael and Chelang’a Naomi
Additional contact information
Kiprono Naftali: Egerton University, Kenya
Gitau Raphael: Egerton University, Kenya
Chelang’a Naomi: Egerton University, South Eastern Kenya University, Kenya

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 2024, vol. 72, issue 2, 144-152

Abstract: Beekeeping is a vital economic activity for smallholder farmers; therefore, it is essential to provide beekeepers with information regarding the profitability and productivity of box hives to encourage them to embrace the technology. However, scant information is available to comprehensively compare the profitability and output of traditional and modern beehives. This study seeks to compare the performance of traditional and modern beehives in Baringo South Sub-County. Simple random sampling was used in conjunction with a cross-sectional survey to collect data from the 197 beekeepers who participated in the study. A gross margin analysis was performed to understand the returns of traditional and modern hives. According to the findings, individuals who used traditional beehives had a higher overall operational cost of Ksh. 1449.44 per hive, whereas those who used modern hives had a total operational cost of Ksh. 1000.73. In addition, the study also demonstrated that those that utilised modern beehives received larger gross margins in Kenyan shillings 7917.74, whilst those who used traditional beehives received Ksh. 5590.59. According to the study’s findings, modern beekeeping generates higher returns than traditional beekeeping. As a result, farmers should be encouraged to employ modern beehives to generate higher returns.

Keywords: gross margin; profitability; beekeeping; beehive; income; returns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.17306/j.jard.2024.01794 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:pojard:v:72:y:2024:i:2:p:144-152:n:1006

DOI: 10.17306/j.jard.2024.01794

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development is currently edited by Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka

More articles in Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().