Socio-Economic Importance of Beekeeping in the Togo Plateau Region

Abstract

Beekeeping is an agricultural activity that was more or less developed and practiced in different ways in the different regions of Togo. In recent years, in certain regions of the country, such as the plateau region, we have noticed a special consideration of the populations for beekeeping, which they practice as a subsistence activity. It is with the aim of seeing if a beekeeper can live exclusively from this activity that the study was carried out. This work has to evaluate the economic contribution of the beekeeping activity in the life of the producers of the region of the plateaus of Togo. To achieve this objective, socio-economic surveys were carried out on the basis of a semi-structured questionnaire via individual interviews. The questionnaire took into account: the profile of the beekeeper, annual investments, number and type of hive used, harvested products, the quantity obtained per hive and per year, selling price. The results obtained on the sale of honey and wax, showed that the beekeeping activity would be economically profitable. For the evaluation of profitability, the cost/revenue method was used. Production costs relate to materials and various expenses incurred. Gross receipts were estimated from cash flows from the sale of hive products. After investigation of the turnover, the profits are calculated by difference between income and expenditure for each product harvested for the year 2019. In short, the activity allows an average annual profit of 766.600 FCFA for beekeepers harvesting only honey and 829.000 FCFA for those harvesting both honey and beeswax, for an average number of 33 hives per producer. This study has shown that a serious beekeeper who is well organized and has at least thirty hives can normally make a good living from this beekeeping activity.