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2022 Mar 01Updated Date
2022 Mar 01Published on
2021 Sep 21Apiculture and biodiversity: characterization of honey produced in Zege (Burundi)
The present study concerns the characterization of honey produced in three sites with different vegetation located in Zege within the walls of the Faculty of Agronomy and Bioengineering (FABI) of the University of Burundi. The objective was to verify whether the quantity and quality of the honey produced varied according to the available floristic resources. For this purpose, hives were placed in three environments with different floristic characteristics, namely the marsh, the conserved natural area and the eucalyptus forest. The physicochemical parameters of honey most commonly used as quality indicators (humidity level, pH, ash content, reducing sugar content and total sugars) were measured. The results of physicochemical analysis of the honey showed that the honey produced is of good quality because it meets international standards. Differences are observed between the sites for all the parameters measured but the difference is only statistically significant for the humidity factor. Honey from the “swamp” site has high values for this parameter. For the “reserve” site, the values of humidity, pH and ash content are relatively low while those of reducing and total sugar levels are relatively high. The observation is that the greater the diversity of honey sources, the greater the quantity and quality of honey produced. Thus, a natural environment offers more opportunities for the development of beekeeping activity and in turn, better supervision of beekeeping activities in protected areas can contribute to the success of conservation measures.