Research article

THE KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF BEEKEEPERS IN DIAGNOSING AND CONTROLLING BEE PESTS IN AL-MAHAWIL DISTRICT/ BABYLON PROVINCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SOME VARIABLES

Sulaiman Dhafer Salman Al-Salami and Mahmood Hadies Jassim Al-Jumailey

Online First: December 21, 2022


The study aimed to determine the level of beekeeper's knowledge of the pests that afflict bees and methods of treating them in the Al-Mahawil district in general and to determine the level of knowledge of the beekeeper in diagnosing and controlling bee pests in each field of research and arranging them according to the arithmetic mean ,As well as finding the correlation relationship between the knowledge level of the beekeeper and the group of independent factors represented by (age, educational level, number of years of beekeeping, number of Beehive, the purpose of breeding, training in the field of bee protection, membership in beekeeping organizations, level of contact with information sources)and identifying the problems facing beekeepers in Al Mahawil district / Babylon province ,and encounter the problems facing beekeepers in Al Mahawil district / Babylon province, The research included all beekeepers in the Al-Mahawil district, And their number (119) educators registered with the agricultural divisions of the Babylon Agriculture Directorate, namely (Al-Mahawil, Nile, Imam, Al-Mussaib Project) after excluding (30) educators as a survey sample for the initial test of the questionnaire from the research community and the community was studied by 100% to become the number of respondents for the final procedures of the research (89) Breeder, Data were collected through a questionnaire form prepared to measure the level of knowledge of beekeepers in diagnosing and controlling bee pests. The questionnaire included three parts. The first part relates to the personal characteristics of the breeders, and the second part includes (58) items to test the level of knowledge of the beekeeper in diagnosing and controlling bee pests distributed in two areas (enemies of bees, and diseases that affect bees). The third part included the problems faced by beekeepers in diagnosing and controlling bee pests in Al Mahawil District / Babylon province. A primality test was performed for the purpose of calculating the stability factor and validity. The half partition method was used where the stability factor was (0.85) and the validity factor was (0.92). After that, the data were collected, unpacked and classified, and then analyzed through the SPSS statistical analysis program and a number of statistical means (range, category length, percentage weight, Spearman Brown's correction factor, weighted average). The results of the research showed that (48.32%) of the respondents have a medium level of knowledge in the diagnosis and control of bee pests with an average knowledge of (27.79), followed by the low group by (34.83%) of the respondents with an average knowledge of (18.64). The results showed that the axis of brood diseases ranked last in the diagnosis and control of bee pests, while the red hornet axis ranked first in the diagnosis and control of bee pests. The results also showed that the correlation is inversely related between the cognitive level of beekeepers in diagnosing and controlling bee pests and age. While the results showed a positive significant correlation between the level of knowledge of beekeepers in diagnosing and controlling bee pests and the following independent factors (academic achievement, number of years of beekeeping, the purpose of breeding, training in the field of bee protection, membership in beekeeping organizations, and information sources), The problem (the spread of disease and pests) and the problem (the lack of protection for the local product and the large number of imported honey) came first and second in relation to the problems faced by beekeepers, while the problem of (lack of government support) came in ranked last. The most important conclusions of the results, The researcher recommends intensifying extension efforts to raise the level of beekeepers knowledge in the research area regarding general beekeeping practices and focus on disease and pest infestation, and the need to work on establishing branches for beekeepers' associations in the various districts of the province , as well as the need to pay attention to practical guidance through the implementation of the extension beehive project, increasing extension activities on bee pests within the annual plans of the extension department in the Directorate of Agriculture and extension centers and using extension campaigns that require combating diseases (Nosema, Varroa, American and European foulbrood), The need to protect the local product and subjecting imported honey to quality control and control to maintain remunerative prices for beekeepers.

Keywords

beekeepers, honey production, bee pests