ASSESSMENT OF HONEY PRODUCTION AS A MEANS OF SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD IN IBADAN METROPOLIS

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. Honey bees form nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation, and store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive. Because of its unique composition and chemical properties, honey is suitable for long-term storage, and is easily assimilated even after long preservation. Honey, and objects immersed in honey, has been preserved for decades and even centuries. The main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, as a spread on bread, and as an addition to various beverages, such as tea, and as a sweetener in some commercial beverages. The importance of honey cannot be over emphasized and as a result, this paper therefore sought to determine the level of participation in the honey production, cost and benefit in relation to the livelihood of people in Ibadan metropolis. The methodology adopted for data collection for this study includes purposive random sampling of four (4) selected rural areas in Ibadan metropolis. A total of sixty structured questionnaires were administered and retrieved from the honey producers. Simple descriptive statistics tools such as frequency and percentage were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Gross margin analysis was used to determine the cost and return while Chi square was employed to determine the level of participation and profitability of honey production in the study area. Honey production business is a profitable enterprise that meets the nutritional requirement and diet need of people depending on them. It is therefore recommended that more awareness activities on the importance of honey should be encouraged by both private and public sectors concerned such as Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), NGOs among others


INTRODUCTION
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans. Honey produced by other bees and insects has distinctly different properties.
Honey bees form nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation, and store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive. In the hive, the bees use their "honey stomachs" to ingest and regurgitate the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested (Standifer, 2007). The bees work together as a group with the regurgitation and digestion until the product reaches a desired quality. It is then stored in honeycomb cells. After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed. However, the nectar is still high in both water content and natural yeasts, which, unchecked, would cause the sugars in the nectar to ferment. (National Honey Board, 2010). The process continues as bees inside the hive fan their wings, creating a strong draft across the honeycomb, which enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar (National Honey Board, 2010). This reduction in water content raises the sugar concentration and prevents fermentation .
Honey is collected from wild bee colonies, or from domesticated beehives. Wild bee nests are sometimes located by following a honey guide bird.
Collecting honey is typically achieved by using smoke from a bee smoker to pacify the bees; this cause the bees to attempt to save the resources of the hive from a possible forest fire, and makes them far less aggressive. The honeycomb is removed from the hive and the honey is extracted from that, often using a honey extractor. The honey is then filtered.
Honey is produced by bees as a food source. In cold weather or when fresh food sources are scarce, bees use their stored honey as their source of energy (National Honey Board, 2010). By contriving for bee swarms to nest in artificial hives, people have been able to semi domesticate the insects, and harvest excess honey. In the hive (or in a wild nest), there are three types of bee: a single female queen bee, a seasonally variable number of male drone bees to fertilize new queens, and some 20,000 to 40,000 female worker bees (Val Whitmyre, 2007).The worker bees raise larvae and collect the nectar that will become honey in the hive. Leaving the hive, they collect sugar-rich flower nectar and return.
Because of its unique composition and chemical properties, honey is suitable for long-term storage, and is easily assimilated even after long preservation. Honey, and objects immersed in honey, has been preserved for decades and even centuries (Hagen, 1876;The Mummy, 1989). The key to preservation is limiting access to humidity. In its cured state, honey has a sufficiently high sugar content to inhibit fermentation. If exposed to moist air, its hydrophilic properties will pull moisture into the honey, eventually diluting it to the point that fermentation can begin. Honey sealed in honeycomb cells by the bees is considered by many to be the ideal form for preservation. The main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, as a spread on bread, and as an addition to various beverages, such as tea, and as a sweetener in some commercial beverages. According to the National Honey Board (a USDA-overseen organization), "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance, this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners". Honey barbecue and honey mustard are common and popular sauce flavors. Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage mead, which is also known as "honey wine" or "honey beer". Previous research has shown that, the ferment for mead was honey's naturally occurring yeast. Honey is also used as an adjunct in some beers.
The diverse use of honey encompasses virtually every aspect of human life including religious purposes. Every religion finds one importance or the other for honey. In the Christian New Testament, Matthew 3:4, John the Baptist is said to have lived for a long period of time the wilderness on a diet consisting of locusts and wild honey.
In Islam, there is an entire Surah (chapter) in the Qur'an called al-Nahl (the Honey Bee). According to hadith, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) strongly recommended honey for healing purposes (Sahih Bukhari vol. 7, book 71, number 584, 585, 588 and 603). Qur'an promotes honey as a nutritious and healthy food." And your Lord inspired the female bee(s), saying: "Take you habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect. Then, eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord made easy (for you)." There comes forth from their bellies, a drink of varying colour wherein is healing for men. Verily, in this is indeed a sign for people who think". (Quran 16:68-69).
In Hinduism, honey is considered as a great medicinal and health food. In Jewish tradition, it is a symbol for the New Year.
In Buddhism, honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima, celebrated in India and Bangladesh.
The importance of honey cannot be over emphasized and as a result, this paper therefore sought to determine the level of participation in the honey production, cost and benefit in relation to the livelihood of people in Ibadan metropolis. Its glycemic index ranges from 31 to 78, depending on the variety. Honey has a density of about 1.36 kilograms per litre (36% denser than water).

METHODOLOGY Study Area
The study was conducted in Ibadan Metropolis which is the capital of Oyo State. The area is located between latitude 7 0 21 1 and 9 0 17 1 North; and longitude 1 0 2 1 and 2 0 44 1 East. Two geographical seasons are identifiable; they are the rainy season beginning from late March to October and dry season stretching from November to early March. The mean annual temperature varies between 21.1 0 C and 31.1 0 C. The annual rainfall is within the range of 800mm in the derived eco-zone to 1500mm in the rainforest belt. It is bimodal with peak in July and September (Faleyimu and Agbeja, 2004).

Data Collection
The methodology adopted for data collection for this study includes purposive random sampling of four (4) selected rural areas, namely; Lagun, Elenusonso,Akufo and Ikereku villages distributed across three Local Government Areas in Ibadan (i.e. Lagelu, Iddo and Akinyele) were selected for the study. Fifteen (15) respondents involved in the production of honey were randomly selected in each village and interviewed with the use of structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed to elicit information on the demographic characteristics of the respondents, level of participation of the respondents and cost and benefit in honey production in the study area.

Data Analysis
Simple descriptive statistics tools such as frequency and percentage were used to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. Gross margin analysis was used to determine the cost and return while Chi square was employed to determine the level of participation and profitability of honey production in the study area.  Table 1 showed that age group of respondents (50 years and above) has the highest percentage of 36.7 percent and 33.3 percent age group of respondents were between 30-39 years which indicated that middle age dominated those that play a major role in honey production in the study area. The study revealed that 90.0 percent of the respondents were married while single accounted for only 3.3 percent of the respondents. It indicated that most married people were actively involved in different roles contributing to improved livelihood of the respondents in the study area. From Table 1, it was revealed that 90.0 percent of the respondents were married while single accounted for only 3.3 percent of the respondents. It indicated that most married people were actively involved in different activities of honey production contributing to improved livelihood of the respondents in the study area. From Table 1, 38.3 percent of the respondents in the study area have a family size between 1-3 while those respondents with large family size (10 and above) accounted for 10.0 percent. This indicated that honey production does not require much labour (family labour). The study revealed that (13.3 percent) of the honey producers interviewed were not educated while 43.3 percent and 18.3 percent of them have primary and secondary school education respectively. Tertiary education accounted for 25.0 percent of the producers. This showed that average honey producers in the study area found basic education as an added advantage which helped them in adopting new techniques and innovation. Most honey producers interviewed took the business of honey production as a main and primary occupation. 60.0 percent of the respondents participated strongly in the business while 25.0 percent participated on average basis. Only 15.0 percent took honey production as alternative job.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 also showed that the respondents whose years of experience fell between 11 -15 years has the highest percentage of 51.7 percent and 36.7 percent of respondents with years of experience fell between 16 -20 years. Very few of the respondents (1.7 percent) joined the business in less than ten years ago. This indicated that honey production is a long life business which is found sustainable and lucrative in the study area. The study revealed that 20.0 percent of the respondents agreed that production of honey is a highly profitable business while 56.7 attested that the profitability is on average. Only 23.3 percent were of the opinion that it is partially profitable. It indicated that on the average 76.7 percent of the respondents confirmed that honey production is a profitable business in the study area.  The result of the analysis on the level of participation in honey production indicated that the level of people's involvement in the production of honey is significant (χ 2 =44.933 b , P=0.05) in decreasing order with strongly participated on top followed by moderately participated and partially participated. As shown in Table 2, the profitability in honey production (χ 2 =14.800 a , P=0.05) was significant and depended on years of experience, household size and the level of education of the people involved in honey production. The budgetary analysis in Table 3 implies that every honey production activities on the average would generate total revenue of N 70,200 each month. The total variable cost and the total fixed cost were N 24,100 and N 5, 000 respectively. The economic efficiency for the honey business was 1.41 which implies that for every N1 spent in producing honey by the respondents in the study area, 41 kobo was realized as profit.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION From the study, the following conclusions can be drawn: • That men were the main participants in honey production activities been their primary occupation. This is probably due to hardship and the level of risk involved in the honey production activities. Men play crucial role in forestry related enterprise development at all stages including marketing. • Adults dominated the business, because they are experienced, having good sense of judgement in running the business to minimize loss.
• The benefit of honey is diverse and unlimited, serves as food, medicine, spices, etc. the economic benefit include source of income and employment generation. • Honey production business is a profitable enterprise that meets the nutritional requirement and diet need of people depending on them.
Having identified the numerous benefits derivable from honey production, it is therefore recommended that more awareness activities on the importance of honey should be encouraged by both private and public sectors concerned such as Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), NGOs among others. Adequate storage facilities and techniques should be put in place in order to ensure limiting access to humidity for quality preservation of honey. Government should also provide necessary assistance in terms of capital and modern honey production equipment (such as bee hives, bee smokers / blower, bees jacket, bee keeping fork, honey extractor, honey centrifuge e.t.c.) in making the business of honey to become more friendly, less laborious and less risky in order to encourage more honey producers particularly women to participate in honey production.