Economic analyesis of apiculture in Igdir province

Apiculture, performed in order to get additional income in Turkey, is a common agricultural activity area with advantages such as being independent to soil, requiring less labor, yielding money in a short time, and having lower investment costs, gives products of honey, pollen, royal jelly, bee venom, and beeswax used in human nutrition, health sector, and export. Even though Turkey is ranked as the second in honey production in the world, it is pretty far behind in honey yield per beehive. This situation requires more researches on apiculture. The purpose of the study is to determine apicultural production economics in Iğdır. Within this scope, use of inputs, determination of honey production costs, production function, production problems, and solution suggestions in apiculture were revealed. Data used in the study belonged to the production year of 2014 and were obtained by the researcher using complete count method from 85 enterprises, registered in Beekeepers Association of Iğdır. Four models were used for honey production function and Linear- Logarithmic Cobb-Douglas Production Model was determined as the most appropriate model. It was determined that while there was a negative and significant correlation between honey yield per beehive, number of full beehives and frequency of changing queen, there was a positive and significant relation between working period in apiculture during year and frequency of controlling beehives in summer. It was found that while totally 601.94 kg of honey including averagely 444.12 kg of extracted honey and 157.82 kg of comb honey were produced in the enterprises, honey yield per beehive was 9.78 kg. Average cost for 1 kg of honey was 20.65TL; while sale price and net profit for extracted honey were 41.41TL/kg and 20.76 TL/kg respectively, sale price and net profit for comb honey were 40.91 TL/kg and 20.26 TL/kg respectively. Enterprises obtained averagely 12417.36 TL of net profit from honey production. Fixed costs took the highest rate (63.11%) among honey production costs; whereas, 77.90% of this rate was family labor costs. Queens should be changed more frequently and beehive controls should be performed in shorter periods in order to increase honey yield obtained from apiculture performed as a profitable activity in the year when study was conducted in the province of Iğdır. Technical education support should be provided for beekeepers in order to produce all of apicultural products. It is recommended for beekeepers to changeover to organic apiculture to sell the honey in higher prices