Increasing Honey Production Effectiveness in Erzincan and Van Provinces

The purpose of this research is to determine the efficiency of beekeeping enterprises in Van and Erzincan provinces of Türkiye and to make recommendations to increase production efficiency. A total of 300 well-prepared questionnaires were distributed in the research area, of which 295 were analyzed. In the study, production analyses were performed with and without the bootstrapping technique. Constant and variable returns to scale were found in the estimates of technical efficiency scores using both non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) to produce efficiency scores and a truncated regression model to link the aforementioned scores with the characteristics of honeybee enterprises and beekeepers. The research revealed that cooperative membership and veterinary benefits had a 1% level of importance for income; some cities were found to have negligible beekeeping activity. Education level was also found not to be important. While determining the efficiency limits in DEA with and without bootstrapping, it was determined that 34.3% of enterprises without it had ineffective constant returns to scale compared to 39.5% for those with it. For variable returns to scale, 28.4% without bootstrapping worked ineffectively, while with bootstrapping, 29.4% were found to be ineffective. The study found that the same level of beekeeping can be maintained by reducing costs. In addition to its economic value, honey is an important source of income for the region. Beekeeping and honey production are important agricultural activities for increasing rural development to create new jobs and increase employment. As a form of alternative tourism, rural tourism combined with apitourism and gastronomy tourism and practices are important for the development of the Erzincan and Van provinces.