Determinants of the intervened beekeeping technological adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

As one of the strategies for revamping the apiculture industry in Africa, adopting modern technologies has been reported to have a significant impact on beekeeping practices, particularly among apiarists in the region. Modern beekeeping technologies, including bee hives with movable frames, protective equipment, and advanced harvesting tools, have been introduced to enhance productivity. However, adoption remains limited due to various socio-economic, institutional and technical challenges. This systematic literature review identifies and analyses the determinants of technology adoption obtained from multiple academic databases published between 2010 and 2025, including Dimension, Scopus, Web of Science, Research 4 Life and Research Gate. A PRISMA Model was used to retrieve related literature from data sources, and the Aggregated Synthesis Approach (ASA) was adopted in data extraction and analysis. Observations from the review revealed that the main beekeeping technologies in sub-Saharan Africa include mostly bee hives with movable frames, protective gear, and bee products’ value-added innovations. However, the expected technological adoptability is determined by pull and push drivers on the ground. These include the beekeepers’ demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and psychological factors, which were among the drivers influencing the adoption of beekeeping technologies. Other drivers included institutional, technological and environmental factors. It was concluded that the identified drivers are both positively and negatively impacting adoption processes. This review suggests that more research and concerted development efforts at the policy and institutional levels are needed to enable the identified drivers to contribute positively to the adoption of intervention-related beekeeping technologies.