Impact De L’utilisation Des Produits Phytosanitaires En Production Cotonniere Et Cacaoyere Sur La Production Apicole En Côte D’ivoire

Abstract

Beekeepers in northern and central part of Ce d'Ivoire, who are generally farmers, complain about desertions and frequent collapses of colonies. The application of pesticides to protect crops against attacks from disease and predators could be one of the factors responsible for these collapses and desertions. The objective of this study was to investigate if the use of agrochemicals in cotton and cocoa plantations could be a constraint to beekeeping. An interview implicating 51 beekeepers-farmers from eight cocoa and cotton producing regions was performed. The main results showed that 22% of the respondents were women. The apiaries contained 8 to 334 beehives with an average of 105 hives per apiary. Among a total of 5372 hives, 1402 were colonized which represents 26% of the hives. Most of the pesticides: insecticides (50%), herbicides (13%) and fungicides (9%) were used in cotton and cocoa production. Among farmers, 51% were not aware of the negative impact of agrochemicals usage on beekeeping. Moreover, 69% of them assured that they are over applying these chemicals. Besides that chemical applications were done during flowering period. From all these results, one can state that the use of agrochemicals on cotton and cocoa production might cause the desertions of bee, the weakening and collapse of hives that were observed by beekeepers.