COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

DEPARTMENT OF VALUE CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Name: Ermiyas Bogale Abera

ID No: 0757/12

Submitted To: Mr. Zerihun Ganewo (Ass.Professor)

 Submitted Date: 15/9/2021 GC

1. Challenges and Opportunities of Honey Production Systems

1.1 Challenges of Honey Production Systems

Poisoning of Honeybees
According to research 98.6% of bee poisoning occur due to agro chemicals mainly insecticides and
herbicides, whereas 1.4% of the case occurs due to poisoning from plants like Bisan (Croton
macrostachys), Semiza(Justitiaschemperina), Gerawa (Venonia spp),Toto hareg (salanecio angertus),
Kulkual (Euphorbia spp,Legeta (Grewia ferruginea) and Donga (Apodytes dimidiate). Honeybees can be
poisoned by chemicals and poisonous plants. The chemicals used for crop protection are the main
pesticides that kill the bees. The use of chemicals and pesticides for crop pests’, weeds, Tsetse fly,
malaria and house pests control brings in to focus the real possibility of damaging the delicate equilibrium
in the colony, as well as contamination of hive products.
Honeybee Pests, Predators and Diseases
The existence of pests was a major challenge to the honeybees and beekeepers. The major pests facing
the beekeeping activities are Hamagot /shelemetmat/, wax moth, ants), and snake were the most harmful
pests in order of decreasing importance. The perception of the beekeepers in the formation of worms due
to disease has had probably happen due to lack of knowledge of differentiating the damage caused by
honeybee diseases and larvae of wax moth. The latter is known to affect the bee’s comb through its larvae
with which the beekeepers get confused worms formed due to disease.
Honeybee Diseases
As we know, honeybee diseases are causing a significant effect on the health status and well-being of
the honeybees. The sign of the disease such as bees fail to fly, crown on the ground in front of hive called
virus. Fortunately, the most important brood and adult bee diseases (like the American and European foul
brood diseases and some major viral diseases) nominated as killers of a colony have not been identified in
the country in general and in the study area in particular.
Colony Absconding
Colony absconding is happening at any time of the year regardless of the hive types because of continues
colony disturbances from different factors in which pest infestation is the most common cause.
Shortage of Bee Forages
Honeybees need adequate nectar and pollen to survive, reproduce and honey production. Moreover, as
the presence of bee forages varied from place to place and all plants are not equally important for bees in
supplying both nectar and pollen resources, it should be understood that honey plants are home for bees
and provide basic nutritional requirements for the survival and reproduction of honeybees.
However, currently, misuse of honey and pollen source plants in the environment through significant
deforestation has brought about shortage of bee forages endangering life on earth in general.
Lack of Knowledge and Skill on Beekeeping
Beekeepers have been engaged in the sector for long years, their knowledge of how to keep them well and
get better pay back is very low which results in lack of proper management of the beehives. Observed
problems were poor/no shades for hives, poor sanitation in the process of production, harvesting, storing
and transporting of honey.

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Lack of Institutional Linkage
There were few trained bee keeping experts or extension workers who can provide important advisory
services to farmers. Beekeepers have low relationships with other beekeeping associations and marketing
institutions, which hinders them from promoting their production systems and market their products.
Lack of Organized Marketing Channel
There is no well-organized market channel for honey in the study area and these results in lack of grading
and standardizing of the product, poor quality control, and inadequate and inconsistent supply to the next
users in the chain.
Low Access to Improved Beekeeping equipment
As top bar and moveable frame type hives are demanding more additional beekeeping equipment than
traditional hive majority of the beekeepers lack protective cloth, smoker, casting mould and honey
extractors, without which improved beekeeping practices can’t be successful. Besides, apiculture
equipment are expensive relative to the purchasing power of the beekeepers and knowledge gap, the
adoption of improved beekeeping practices also relies on the supply of these basic inputs.

1.2 Opportunities of Honey Production Systems

Availability of Honeybee Floral Resources

The availability of multipurpose trees and shrubs has been identified not only as major sources of pollen
and nectar for honeybees but also provide different services to the community. Of course, the
interdependency between honeybees and floral resources also enables the reproduction, productivity and
diversification of plants on earth. Very recently, establishment of apiaries near a forest, closure and
religious areas is a common practice. Because of the fact that beekeeping farmers have understood the
values of floral resources for increased honey production and survival rate of the honeybee colonies.
Availability of Honeybee Resource
To start beekeeping; one person must find the colony by any means which is simple way to him/her. From
all methods of catching swarm, obtaining from the environment is more advantageous than the other
methods because it does not incur cost, and one can catch several colonies in one season. Most
beekeepers start beekeeping by catching the swarm from the environment and following by gift from their
parents and also from their relatives. This explains the environment has good access to honeybee
resource.
Increasing Attention and Focus from the Government
To strength the apiculture sector and to produce the hive products and benefit from the activities of
honeybees the attention of government is very important. Now days the government of Ethiopia focused
on the apiculture sector by interconnection with natural resource conservation. Government and non –
government organizations undertake many activities in the form of training and helping the top
beekeepers by providing them some modern beehive.
Increasing hive products’ demand
The rising of hive product is depending on many reasons:- management, floral resource, knowledge of
honey flow period and so on. To increase the hive products, one beekeeper should update his/her
knowledge by working many years with honeybee and have technology training from government and
non-government organizations. The production of honey is increasing from year to the year because of
increase in intensity and frequency of giving training.

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Market Access
The small scale farmers supply their all agricultural product as to honey bee products to their village
market, Woreda market, zonal market, nearby zonal market. There is possibility of marketing in all
destination of apiary product marketing. Honey is almost exclusively used for income earning for small
scale farmers. This will also give a good opportunity to create increasing demand for honey and
competitive market and to promote export of hive products, which will in turn result in endogenous
technological change and overall development in the sub-sector.

2. Honey Value Chain Actors and their Roles

Core Actors

Input Suppliers
These are the first actors in honey value chain. Governmental (Livestock and fishery offices and
Research institutions) and nongovernmental organizations with common objective of honey product
maximization through providing of modern beekeeping inputs to the beekeepers while and private
enterprises supplying modern hives. Furthermore, organizations provide trainings and free extension
service with the help of expert’s and developmental agents.
Producers
The major actors who perform most of the value chain functions from the procurement of the inputs to
harvesting and marketing. The major value chain functions that honey producers perform includes
sorting, filtering and transporting. Most of the honey producers sell their honey to different buyers
involved in the market at farm gate, village or district market center. They sell crude honey to
cooperatives, local collectors, retailers, processors and consumers at the local market or farm gate.
Processors
These are actors who purchase crude honey from beekeepers, cooperatives, collectors and wholesalers
then supply processed honey to global consumers by packing and giving brand name while others sell to
local consumers in the form of brewery locally known as tej and birz.
Honey Collectors
They are those actors who buy cured honey directly from smallholder producers at the farm gate and local
markets in the sampled districts. Sometimes the collectors add value to honey by making spatial and
temporal differences (i.e., collecting from distant location to make easily available to the user and storing
for future use for long). These collectors are then selling the product directly honeys retailers, whole
sellers and processors.
Cooperatives
The major actors who directly participate in production and marketing of honey. Cooperatives sale the
crude honey they bought directly from producers to honey unions which process and pack honey for
export market by extracting liquid honey from the honey comb and to local breweries. In addition,
cooperatives process and pack honey by themselves and sell to the local consumers at their own retailing
shop. Cooperatives also jointly working with beekeepers households and give trainings on bee forage
development, queen rearing, harvesting and processing honey.

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Transportation
Out of the total market participant households, most of farmers sold their entire product by supplying it
to different markets while others sold it both in farm and market. Use different transporting means such as
car, cart and donkey to supply the product to the market, but most of the honey products means of
transport from rural areas to the main routes or small village towns where there is no route for trucks is
using labor or drought animals.
Wholesalers
They are actors those who receive honey directly from local collectors those who buy honey at local
market and farm gate directly from beekeepers. The wholesalers have intimate relation with their supplier
who brings a bulk of honey for them. Sometimes, some wholesalers give money (advance payment) for
some collectors in the morning on the market day in order to bring for them the honey they bought from
producers. These wholesalers will then sell the honey to the processors and retailers.
Retailers
These are the actors that delivered honey to end users. They are small shops that engaged in honey trading
by buying honey directly from producers, collectors and whole sellers in the form of semi processed or
crude honey. Then they process the honey and sell to consumers.
Consumers
The honey produced through different chain actors to reach on the hand of final consumers. There are two
types of consumers who consume the honey produced. The first one is local consumers those who buy
crude or processed honey directly from producers, retailers shop and processers consume the honey
produced. They also includes local communities those who consume 'tej' and 'birz'. The main role of
honey consumers is buying and consuming. The second type of consumer is global consumers those who
buy exported honey consume it out of the country.
Supporters
Districts Livestock and Fishery office
They provide support for both smallholder beekeepers and cooperatives in the districts on honey
production and marketing. They give advice to use modern hives to improve the quality and quantity of
honey produced in the districts. They also provide training on how to construct modern hive (Chefeka
hive) from locally available material. In line with production advice they provide the advice for
smallholder beekeepers regarding honey marketing to sell their product through cooperatives or to be
organized and sell their product in mass to high value markets.
Honey Unions
Is a collection of different beekeeping and marketing cooperatives organized to work on bee products. It
collects from the honey cooperatives, process and exports honey.
EWNRA (Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association)
EWNRA is a project working on participatory forest management. It provides support to both smallholder
beekeepers and beekeeper cooperatives through providing training on different techniques in honey
production; harvesting, processing and marketing .They also provide the modern beekeeping tools for the
beekeepers and cooperatives.
OVOP (One village one product promotion Project)

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 Working on supporting production and marketing of three commodities like spices, honey and bula (the
flour prepared from inset or false banana). It supports beekeeper cooperatives through providing technical
and material like modern hives, processing machines and packing machines supports.

Districts Trade and Market Development Offices

Provide support in controlling illegal traders that has no license for trading; give license for them and
controlling quality of honey.
Research Institutions
Provide technical support, like training and capacity building for beekeepers, cooperatives and for
development on different aspects of beekeeping.
Micro Finance Office
It supports the sector through providing credit services for traders and cooperatives as credit supply is
one of the major supporting activities of honey value chain.
Self-supply
This is a financing system by which the business finances itself back. In this case, farmers spent the
income generated from apiculture for purchasing inputs or further expansion.
Influencers
Chain influencers Chain influencers are those that influence the performance of the sub sector, its actors
and their supporters. They influence the entire sub sector (and beyond) without performing an actor or
supporters role: influencers (such as the ministry of commerce) determine (partly) the factors (such as
investment climate, Ministries, Chamber of Commerce, media, government implementing.
Policy
The Government of Ethiopia has established a conducive policy environment for the apiculture sector
under the agriculture Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) (MoFED 2010), among which proclamation
660/2009 provides for Apiculture Resources Development and Protection, Draft Regulation of Apiculture
Resources Development and Protection, establishment of a new Apiculture Research Division at a
national level, direct involvement of honey exporting enterprises in the current Residue Monitoring Plan
(RMP).
3, How traditional marketing system is different from Value chain
marketing system?

Traditional Marketing System Value Marketing System

Producing and pushing to the market
One way link(Only forward)
Weak link
Farmers tend to receive minimal profit, due to a
lot of actors participating in the market
Pull customer demand then add value and push it
to the market
Reverse link(Forward and Backward)information
and finance
Strong link
Farmers tend to receive high profit, due to direct
link between farmers and consumers

No Contrat(Selling Randomly) Contrat Based

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 Outdate of products No outdate of products
Product request Customer request
Less Transparency High Transparency
Low Interdependence High Interdependence

4, The importance of value chain approach for our country?

Value chain approaches help break down all the activities that go into producing a good or service and
understanding areas of cost savings and differentiation. With a value chain approach, you can optimize
efforts, eliminate waste, and improve profitability.

The values chains help provide useful insights that can bring greater value to the end customer. Some of
the importances are:

Improved Bids and Proposals: Improves ability to capture, track and manage customer and
marketing requirements to better estimate design, planning, procurement, production and service
activities for more accurate cost estimates all with complete traceability.
Better Product Planning, Research, and Development: Includes developing a cross-functional
team approach to planning, developing, delivering and servicing products focused on program
performance, cost reduction and product quality. This enables to more effectively plan and
implement simultaneous projects while managing resource allocation, costs, scheduling and
deliverables more efficiently.
Standardized Processes: VCA calls for repeatable and measurable business processes to better
manage the product master data to ensure that customer expectations and commitments are met.
Improved Vendor Management: Synchronizing design and sourcing teams with vendors ensures
that outsourced components and subsystems are managed to meet performance, quality, and
schedule and cost requirements while avoiding design flaws, excess inventory and waste.
Post-Sales Service and Support: Through VCA, our country be able to better manage and track in-
service product configuration changes coordinated among field service, customer support and
engineering resources.
Reduced Costs: Optimizing all the value chain components listed above can result in substantial
end-to-end cost savings from streamlined processes, reduced inefficiencies and waste, better
inventory control and improved product quality
Improved Profitability: The ultimate result of a comprehensive and robust VCA program is
enhanced revenues and better profit margins, contributing to greater overall success.

5, Discuss the criteria for choosing a value chain to promote?

1. Develop a short list of potential value chains to evaluate
This is usually done through a brainstorming session with members of your team, based on preliminary
research. The list should be manageable in size, usually between three and five potential value chains.
2. Review secondary research
The next step is to do secondary research. Secondary research refers to research that already exists (i.e.,
research that others have already conducted and published). The goal of this step is to build knowledge of
the potential value chains that have been selected.
3. Review existing industry and market research
This can include going back through your own agency’s market research as well as looking at third-party
research that is publicly available. Third-party sources may include the following:

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• Government ministry websites and publications for your country
• World Bank, FAO
• International Trade Center
• Global Industry Reviews

4. Conduct primary research and key informant interviews.

The most current information is likely to be found through direct conversations and interviews with key
informants within your country/region. Key informants can be found:
• Government: relevant ministries/departments (e.g., economic development)
• Private Sector: chamber of commerce, industry/trade associations, farmers’ associations, successful
businesses, financial institutions
• Academics: universities
• Other NGOs & organizations working in the value chain or related sectors

Typically, the project designer will be seeking answers to the following questions:
• What are the growing industries?
• In which industries is there good potential for linkages for microenterprises and small enterprises?
• What are the challenges in these industries? To industry competitiveness? To participation by
microenterprises and small enterprises? How do these challenges differ for men and women?
• What are the opportunities? How do they differ for men and women?
• Who else would have insight into these issues and conditions?
5, Considering Gender Strategies

1. Gain a preliminary understanding of women’s current participation in the chain and the overlap with a
country’s impact group, to then be deepened via the full analysis of gender in the value chain.
2. Generate a set of hypotheses as to how gender issues in the value chain may be addressed in terms of
differences and equalities, and determine the research that will be undertaken to test these hypotheses.

 The project designer will need to be able to answer some questions about the role of women
within the value chains that are being considered:
 Where are women located in the value chain? What roles do they play? In those roles, how do
they lead and/or contribute to making decisions?
 How many men and women are in the chain? As microenterprise and small enterprise owners? As
laborers?
 What constraints will poor women face in upgrading their roles and/or entering into the chain?
 What opportunities exist for women in the value chain?
 What are the potential risks to women of expanding their roles and influence over decisions? Is
there mobility or other contextual constraints that could endanger women?
 Are women or the people they interact with functioning in hidden roles (engaging in piecemeal
contracts, household labor, and child rearing) that may impact a target group’s economic potential
or cause potential for harm?

6, Select criteria to evaluate identified value chains

After completing secondary research, the project designer should be ready to select the criteria upon
which he or she will evaluate the potential value chains. There are two sets of criteria: core and
supplemental. The core criteria are common criteria used in every value chain selection process.

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Designers also apply supplemental criteria each time a value chain is selected, but these criteria will vary,
depending on country, donor priorities, implementing agency mission, and other factors unique to a
particular value chain selection process. The table below outlines universal core criteria as well as a set of
illustrative supplemental criteria.

Universal Core Criteria

These two criteria are used in every value chain selection process.
Growth Is there large scale unmet demand in the value chain or are there
potential/ clear indicators that the market is growing or will grow in the
Unmet market future?
demand
Potential scale of What is the potential for a large and increasing number of impact
outreach group members (typically smallholder or landless producers) to
to impact group participate in the value chain?
Illustrative Supplemental Criteria
These criteria represent examples of some common criteria used by design teams in value
chain selection.
Level of Is there support within government institutions for growing the value
Public-Sector chain? Are there policies or services in place that would help the sector
Support grow?
Potential What is the opportunity for development of this value chain to
Environmenta positively impact environmental issues?
l Impact
Private- Is there an active private sector, beyond production, in the sector? Are
Sector businesses investing in the value chain?
Investment
Value Chain Is the private sector poised to grow the value chain? Are there private-
Preparedness sector associations in place? Are there other NGOs working in the value
chain with whom we could partner? What are the opportunities/gaps in
terms of financing that the project could leverage/address?

Food What role does the value chain play in food security? What is the
Security nutritional importance of the crop?

Selecting the right set of criteria upon which to base the value chain selection is key. Here are some things to
consider during criteria selection:
• Don’t base the selection purely on the current involvement of producers (or impact group) in the value chain
—or vice versa, their lack of involvement.
• Look for trends
• Avoid focusing only on recent performance of a value chain, look one, three, five, and even 10 years back.
• Involve others in criteria selection, get multiple opinions from people within your agency and people external
to it if possible (e.g., Key Informants, Stakeholders).
• Consider the impact and opportunities around financial services in relationship to the various value chains.
Are there financial partners, services, and/or products in place? Does the impact group have access to financial
services?

7. Collect and analyze data to rank and select value chains

The last activity in the value chain selection process is to rank the potential value chains against the criteria the
project designer has chosen. In order to do this, the project designer may need to, once again, do additional
market research. Consider that in order to rank value chains against the two core criteria, the project designer
needs to know the following:

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• What is the current potential for market expansion?
• Are there risks that the market might decline?
• What is the growth potential in the short, medium, and long term?
• Are local production factors (land, labor, infrastructure, etc.) conducive to growth?
• Is there evidence of strong effective demand?
• Is there demand that is not met by current supply?
• Who are the current competitors?
• How competitive is the local value chain?
• How many enterprises in the impact group currently participate in the chain? How many more can be brought
in?
• How do/could these enterprises benefit?
• Can/could these enterprises earn regular incomes in this value chain?
• Do these enterprises have the technical capacity and potential to reach new markets?

If the project designer cannot answer those questions, more research and analysis needs to be
conducted. Usually, the project designer will go back to the key informants to fill in any gaps in
understanding. When the project designer is ready, he or she will rank each potential value chain against
the criteria on a scale of one to five. The project design team should review the results with stakeholders
and key informants and make adjustments as necessary before finalizing value chain selection.

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