Study of Production Economics and Production Problems of Honey in Bardiya District, Nepal.

Beekeeping is very old practice in Nepal but modern beekeeping actually started from 1995. This study was carried in Bardiya, Nepal with the objective of analyzing production economics, resource use efficiency, technical efficiency and production problem of honey, produced from Apis mellifera. Total of fifty five households were randomly selected as the sample for the study. Farmers were rearing on an average 34.54 hives and average honey productivity was 34.6 Kg/hive. Average production cost was NRs. 7392.52 with the average net profit of NRs. 2987.05 (1 USD = 106 NRs), and B:C ratio was 1.67. Labor cost, migration cost and expenditure on sugar drug and comb foundation seems to have positive and significant relation with gross return. All of them appeared to be underutilized and needed to be increased by 39%, 74% and 34% respectively for the profit maximization. Main production problem found to be high cost and inadequate availability of modern equipment with the index score of 0.81. And, according to the farmers, main role institution that should play is providing training to the farmers. With proper and efficient use of input, beekeeping could be potential and viable commercial enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]