Assessing rangeland suitability guidelines for apiculture (Case study: Middle Taleghan)

Evaluating the rangeland ecological capabilities are necessary for sustainable utilization of range resources. The appropriateness of middle Taleghan rangelands for apiculture was evaluated by considering the plants composition with high nectar and pollen values (20 scores), distance from water resources (10 scores), distance from road (10 scores) and temperature (10 score). A random-systematic method was used to collect the data. Four 200 meters transects were established in each vegetation type and percentage cover of plants with high value for apiculture were measured using 40 plots (with size of 1 square meter each). The appropriateness of vegetation types for bee industrywas mapped using the guidelines in suggested manual and FAO approach (1991). The agreements of these two maps were then calculated by ILWIS software. Low percentage cover of plants species attractive to bees and low road accessibility were the two most important limiting factors for rangeland suitability for apiculture in the study area. Appropriate watering point distribution in the rangeland and suitable temperature range were also identified as important factor to increase range suitability for apiculture.According to the results, 10577/75 hectares (41/35%) of the studied area were classified as moderately suitable (S2) and 15001/15 hectares (58/65%) had poor suitability (S3). Sixteen thousands hectares (>64 %) of the rangelands for apiculture were classified by the two methods similarly.