Etude comparative de la rentabilité de deux types d'apiculture au Nord Ouest Cameroun

Comparative Study of the Profitability of Two Types of Bee Farming in the North West Cameroon. The present study examines the financial profitability of beekeeping in Cameroon. The global objective is to compare the profitability of two types of bee farms in the North West Region. The main hypothesis, however, is the following: there is a significant difference in output and in net benefit between traditional and semimodern bee farms. As regards the methodology used, a two stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select 100 bee farmers. Primary data was collected on elements of costs and revenue. The technique of cost benefit analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings showed that traditional beekeeping and semi-modern beekeeping (using Kenyan hives "KTBH") farms have an average production of 77.46 and 112.68 liters of honey per year respectively, for the respective average total revenue of 86 832.39 FCFA and 143 791 FCFA. The average annual value of their ratio Net Benefit/Total Cost is 1.168 and 1.193 respectively. The semi-modern bee hives perform better than the traditional one. Even with some difficulties faced by some farmers, bee farming in the North West Cameroon remains profitable. Despite the static character of this study, we suggest that beekeepers should adopt the semi-modern (Kenyan) hives

Analyse économique de la structure des coûts de production apicole au Cameroun

Economic Analysis of the Bee Farming Costs Structure in Cameroon. Beekeeping is spreading in Cameroon, and contributes to the sustainable management of the non timber forest products. This study presents the structure of the bee farms production factors in the North-West of the aforesaid country. The assumption is that there would be a significant difference in the production costs components between the types of bee-farms in the North-West of Cameroon. The data collected in 2005 related to the operation of the exploitations, the cost factors and income. The analyses were made using Excel and SPSS software, and the principal results are the following. Bee farming returns to scale are decreasing in the North-West of Cameroon. The bee farms of this zone invest more in the capital factor. Their follow-up is very insufficient, whereas all can maximize profit. Although there is a significant difference of the total fixed costs of production between the traditional bee exploitations and the semi modern ones, there is no difference in variable costs, nor in total cost of production between them. The setting-up of an apiculture policy which insists on extension services close to the bee-farmers is essential for the rise of this sub sector