The impact of beekeeping on household income: evidence from north-western Ethiopia

The existing literature acknowledges the benefits of beekeeping as a livelihood diversification strategy and income source for farmers across the world. However, the impact of beekeeping on income at household level has rarely been quantified. Furthermore, the few existing studies provide conflicting evidence and the methods quantifying the impact of participating in beekeeping are not rigorous. In this study, we identify key determinants of such participation and quantify the impact of beekeeping on household income. We use a cross-sectional data set collected from 392 randomly selected households in north-western Ethiopia, employing the endogenous switching regression model with estimated treatment effects. Unlike the methods used by previous studies, the approach adopted here enabled the control of observed and unobserved heterogeneities that affect not only the decision to participate in beekeeping, but also income differences among households. The results show that there are important differences between beekeepers and non-beekeepers in terms of their skills and resource endowments. After these differences were controlled for, beekeeping participation was found to increase income by 3,418 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) per person, namely a 51% increase. Furthermore, it was estimated that households not participating in beekeeping could have increased their income by ETB 442 per person (an 11% increase) had they become beekeepers. These findings indicate that income gains from beekeeping participation are 22–44 percentage points higher than benefits reported by previous studies. Capitalising on the existing beekeeping policy, targeted beekeeping extension to farmers could contribute to closing gaps in skills and resource endowments and, hence, minimising differences in income.