Acceptance of the SAMS-system in ET and ID

During the SAMS system implementation phase, beekeepers from Ethiopia and Indonesia were interviewed on their attitude towards the SAMS system. According to their answers, constraints and countermeasures were formulated.

Acceptance of the SAMS-system in Ethiopia

Summary: The SAMS system has a lot of potential to help the beekeepers in Ethiopia in so many ways. During the SAMS system implementation and usability tests, we learned the following key points.

1. The beekeepers think the system is beneficial to use, yet they have limited exposure to digital technology and are not familiar with such kind of technology. Thus it is suggested to conduct more capacity building activities to make them familiar with technologies like SAMS.
2. Limited access to the monitoring equipment found in the local markets. Install a new system or maintaining it was challenging in the implementation process. Government attention is highly required to make IoT components available in the local market to sustainably use technologies like SAMS.
3. Raspberry pi zero W is an affordable single board computer but it is a bit overkill to be used as a data logger and the power consumption is relatively higher than the alternatives. Replacing it to the simpler system will benefit on the cost redaction and power consumption demanded by the system.
4. Setting up a solar power system was a challenge because most apiary sites are inside a forest. To improve this situation alternative power sources are required to address appears located in areas with more tree coverage on land.
5. Currently the SAMS system is moderately affordable for beekeepers and cutting down costs by using simple function modules will improve the affordability range by the beekeepers.

Most of the Ethiopian beekeepers have traditional beekeeping experience which they have learned from their elders or fellow beekeepers. SAMS will give them the benefits of growing their beekeeping skills in the fields of modern beekeeping and simplifying their ways of beekeeping activities with more productivity. But it needs more work on closing the gaps to use digital technologies on beekeeping and minimizing the cost for the SAMS system to make it more reachable by most beekeepers

Acceptance of the SAMS-system in Indonesia

Some adjustments and findings are discovered within the SAMS monitoring system’s implementation process and usability testing in Indonesia. These findings will significantly contribute to business potential mapping and development. Some of the main findings are:

1. Beekeepers have a limited budget, and technology is not yet considered in beekeeping practices.
2. Local beekeepers found it valuable to monitor trap-hives (modern beehives used to trap new bee colony), placed deep in the forest, so power source became the main concern for such systems.
3. Cheaper monitoring system that simple and easy to augment to the existing modern beehive is preferable.
4. Improvement of sustainable power source beside solar panel, considering that the SAMS HIVE system is often put deep in the forest.
5. Smaller or simple monitoring system components that easy to bring while travel on foot to the remote apiary site.

Some aspects concerning the beekeeping ecosystem in target countries also need to be considered; for example, the Indonesian beekeeping ecosystem is not yet developed as the beekeeping ecosystem in Ethiopia or Europe. This immaturity of the ecosystem resulting in a lack of integrated support from beekeeping stakeholders. So simple technology is considered a better option to first improved the ecosystem.