EVALUATION OF HONEYBEE HIVE DENSITY ON THE AVOCADO (Persea americana m) FRUIT PRODUCTION AND HONEY QUANTITY AND QUALITY DURING AVOCADO FLOWERING IN DARA OTILCHO DISTRICT SIDAMA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This study was conducted in the Darra Otilcho district of Sidama region, Ethiopia to assess bee keeping activities, impact of honeybee hive density on the quantity and quality of avocado fruit and to determine the effect of hive density on honey quantity and quality produced. 116 bee keepers were selected using multistage sampling method for household survey from highland and midland agro ecologies. 12 Avocado orchards with an area of 1 ha for each orchard were selected purposively based on ownership of avocado tree for experimental work. For this study, Randomized Completely Block Design was applied with four treatments (0 hive (T1) (only for fruit), two hives (T2) and four hives (T3) and six hives (T4) each with three replications. The result of the study indicated that supplementing pollination by honeybee hives per orchard increased avocado fruit set than the control (no hive per orchard). The largest fruit weight (258gm), fruit length (13.2cm) and fruit yield per tree (246kg) were obtained from treatment four. In the current study, supplementing pollination by honeybee hives per orchard revealed better Total soluble solids, Dry Matter and lower Titratable acidity as compared to the control. Pollen determination of all treatment samples indicated that the mono flora of Persea americana honey consisted of 55.27%, 64.86% and 56.96% for treatment two, three and four, respectively. The highest average of the honey yield per hive was recorded from treatment two (17.66kg) and the lowest mean values were obtained from treatment four (12.8kg). The overall mean of honey sample of all treatments obtained indicated that physiochemical parameters except electrical conductivity (0.98) the rest of honey quality such as moisture content (19.75%), Ash (0.5 g/100 g), HMF (18.16 mg/kg), pH (4.48) ,free acidity (28.2 meq/kg), (glucose (31.52 g/100 g), Fructose (36.47 g/100 g) and sucrose (2.35 g/100 g)) were evaluated in this study to comply with national and internal standards. There is statistical variation (p < 0.05) observed between a honey sample of treatments and that of farmers for Ash, electrical conductivity, free acidity, HMF and Sucrose parameters. The current study indicated that the observed result of honeybee production in avocado orchards was valuable for farmers and strongly suggested that honeybee pollination had a significant role in avocado productivity.