Bee Farming As A Panacea For Poverty Alleviation In Obalinku Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria

The lack of sufficient income or resources to meet individuals, families, and communities’ basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare, and economic opportunities is largely attributed to their poverty status. This study set out to analyze bee farming as a poverty alleviation measure in Obalinku, Cross River State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling method was used in selecting the respondents, who were comprise of crop farmers, crop and livestock farmers, and crop, livestock and bee farmers. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and were analyzed using both descriptive statistics involving percentage and mean, gross margin and inferential statistics (Foster, Greer and Thorbecke and Logistic regression). The results revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 41years. Most of the respondents were married with an average number of 5 persons per household, with moderate income level but well educated and had spent an average of 21 years in farming. The gross margin analysis shows that bee farming was profitable as average annual income of the respondents was ₦143,000.00 generated from 1 beehive, with a profit margin of ₦73,550.00 and ROI of 0.7. The result further revealed that the poverty incidence (0.61) and severity (0.399) were higher for crop farmers. The major causes of poverty were type of enterprise, educational level and household size. One of the major constraints identified in the study area is access to credit. The study recommends that government should enhance accessibility to credit and improve rural infrastructure to encourage educated households to remain in farming.