James Godfrey Lyimo

Bee Products Production in Tanzania: Implications to Community Livelihood in Mlele District James Godfrey Lyimo

This study assessed the fluctuation of bee products production and its implication to livelihood in Mlele District. Literature review, satellite image interpretation, household questionnaire study, field observations, key informant interview and Focus Group Discussion methods were used to complement each other in data collection. The findings show that, bee products production in the study area are fluctuating with a declining trend consistently with positive correlation (R2 = 0.51 for honey and R2 = 0.79 for beeswax respectively) with time. The reasons for the decline are linked with climate variability, pest and predators, involvement of beekeepers in tobacco cultivation and transitional period from the use of bark to log or box hive among the others. The fluctuation of bee products production affects community livelihood including reduction of family income. Given this situation, household have adopted different coping and adaptation strategies which some contributed to degradation of bee resources consequently the decline of bee products production.