Financial Management of Apiculture : A Case Study

Abstract

A survey study was conducted to study the profitability index of apiculture enterprise in Pathankot, Gurdaspur district, Punjab. Data for period of a year (2009-9010) was collected by interviewing randomly selected 10 beekeepers from a sample survey. Profitability Index of apiculture was computed by including and excluding the revenue obtained from colony selling. 3% of beekeepers sold bee colonies for earning income which was very less. The study revealed that Profitability Indices of apiculture were 2.81 and 1.88 respectively in case of inclusion and exclusion of the income received from colony selling. It showed that apiculture industry was running in profit in both cases. But in former case, the PI was higher than the latter case, therefore in order to find that which investment option is better (Beekeeping with colony selling or not colony selling) the Payback Period method of investment evaluation was used. The research findings showed that in former case the investment would take 0.35 years to pay back and in latter case it would take 0.53 years to payback the returns, hence it was concluded that beekeeping with colony selling was better investment option and a good source of income . Further, it is suggested that Govt. of Punjab should encourage the apiculture by giving timely loan at reasonable interest rate, arranging training programmes to create awareness of the latest techniques to the farmers and the book keeping procedure of the financial records, so that the beekeepers can assess the best technique of cultivation of generate quick and high rehurn