Indicador de Desempenho Apícola para Qualificação da Apicultura no Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The rearing honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an agricultural activity considered easy technology to implement exploiting the natural resources within the area covered by the flora and crops. Currently, the productivity of Africanized honey bee in Brazil is an undeniable feature but the increase of the number of apiaries requires further evaluation. Annual production data for the honey per hive in different Brazilian regions are scarce and conflicting which show a lack of zootechnical control for the rearing. Production data are generally estimated through all the national production and some Brazilian states. In the state of Rio de Janeiro the beekeeping is not different compared to other states studied because the average production of honey per hive is 14 kg which accounts for only 1% of honey produced in Brazil. Thereby showing this state as a small producer. Despite being one of the National Centers for wide dissemination of knowledge and technology beekeeping, which is established over 60 years ago. This research was idealized because of the necessity observed about the fluminense beekeeping which requires structural changes to ensure its growing. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the technological conditions of the apiaries of Africanized honey bees departing to their beekeepers. A total of 39 municipalities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, were chosen according to their degree of loss within the context of beekeeping fluminense. Each middle region of the state had some municipalities used as samples. In this experiment was formulated an index to evaluate the beekeeper´s performance or beekeeping activity called beekeeping performance indicator (PIBee). It is a short form to measuring in a single value, a number of variables of interest to the experts. Through this indicator is possible to describe the present situation of beekeeping Fluminense, in this manner identify each obstacle and thus to propose and guiding corrective actions as beekeeping management which are directly related to the production indexes (total production and average of honey per hive production). The data were tabulated during 2009 and 2010. Four months were required to construct the PIBee. Statistical analysis were carried out with the statistical package R version 2.8.1, and spatial analysis in geographic information system (GIS) TerraView version 3.1.3. Both free software. Our results showed that a planning, organization and technical management in the short, medium and long term the beekeeping Fluminense needs. The results showed in this work are isolated and localized, thus requiring control measures especially by the producers, such as: choosing the best place to install the apiaries and the correct installation of the hive, hive population which has a high percentage of beekeepers (95%) who needs to adapt the technology of settlement of their apiaries. The management adopted by Fluminense beekeepers in their apiaries shows that 93% still use technologies which can be to turn a high risk activity. We conclude that PIBee was efficient featuring some of the technological gaps and management of the issues reviewed and evaluated to be better planned and modified if necessary.