Assessment of the effects of subsidies to the beekeeping sector in Turkey on the number of hives and amount of honey produced

The beekeeping sector was included in the scope of government subsidies only after 2000s. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of extracted honey subsidy granted to the beekeeping sector between 2003 and 2007 and the hive subsidy granted based on the number of hives, regardless of the amount of production, since 2008 on the number of hives and the amount of honey production. The material of the study consists of the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TURKSTAT) databases and the AKS (Beekeeping Registration System). The study addresses the figures regarding the amount of honey production, number of hives, yield per hive in the two different subsidy periods as well as the changes in these figures over time. Binary Logistic Regression analysis was employed to identify the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variables. The differences between the number of hives, annual increase in the number of hives and amount of honey production in the two different subsidy periods were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). The risk of honey production falling under the Type 1 subsidy is 4.848 times the risk of honey production falling under the Type 2 subsidy. The tendency of the number of hives to increase under Type 2 subsidy is 1.128 times higher than that under Type 1 subsidy. Switching to the new type of subsidy resulted in a decreasing (negative) trend for honey production, but an increasing trend for total number of hives. Governments are able to steer the development of the sectors by providing subsidies, which applies to the beekeeping sector as well. Due to the abovementioned reasons, the subsidies granted to the beekeeping sector should be aimed at increasing the yield per hive, rather than increasing the number of hives