Beekeeping in the Gambia: a project organised by ActionAid - the Gambia, and co-financed by ODA Beekunda at Jali, Kiang West

ActionAid-the Gambia is a nongovernment organisation which began work in 1980. ActionAid’s objectives are to assist rural communities to improve their standard of living by undertaking small-scale development projects in villages where the organisation sponsors primary school children. ActionAid believes that real advances in the quality of village life cannot be sustained if dependency is created on outside agencies. ActionAid therefore only becomes involved in projects for which the need has already been perceived the by the villagers, and where the constraints are not too great. In the

Gambia, beekeeping fulfils these requirements and ActionAid has been involved with the development of beekeeping there since 1982, when the first pilot scheme was established. Villagers soon found that compared with other income-generating projects, beekeeping is a less labour-intensive commercial venture, capable of supplementing rural income. By 1985, thirteen apiary groups with a total of 200 hives had harvested 1,103 litres of honey in four harvests, providing an average income of $US 349 for each group.

In 1985 ActionAid obtained cofinancing from ODA for a three-year project to allow assistance to 49 villages and 82 schools expressing enthusiasm and interest to start beekeeping. The project has four main objectives:

1. To upgrade the skills of local beekeepers and enable them to produce better quality honey and wax.

2. To generate income in rural communities.

3. To assist ‘Kafo’s (co-operatives) to build Beekundas (bee compounds) by providing the necessary materials such as cement, nails etc. The ‘Kafo’s providing labour.

4. To assist schools in gaining greater financial and nutritional independence through the introduction of beekeeping into the school curriculum.

Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiaries of the project are the 49 local beekeepers and the 2940 members of Village Apiary Groups, receiving training in beekeeping with top-bar hives. Other beneficiaries are the 12300 schoolchildren at the 82 Action Aid-assisted schools who receive beekeeping instruction as part of their school curriculum.

Progress so far

Beekeeping has now become an activity which attracts a great deal of attention and is increasingly popular. As well as generating extra income, honey has medicinal value and is a good substitute for sugar which is often scarce. One problem encountered by the project has been in obtaining sufficient timber for the construction of beehives. In addition, by assisting villagers in marketing honey, ActionAid encouraged overdependency on the project, and local competition in the market place was too great for the beekeepers to cope with. This problem was overcome by a change of marketing strategy: instead of importing honey jars for supermarkets, the beekeepers sell their honey in the open markets using standard cup measurements.

This project provides an example of successful beekeeping the development: original project objectives were not Over-optimistic, and sufficient time has been allowed for beekeeping to spread slowly as villagers see their neighbours undertaking this worthwhile activity. ActionAid has ensured throughout that it is local people who instigate activity: project managers are elected by villagers, and these managers show a lot of enthusiasm and commitment, and have succeeded in improving the smooth-running of projects.

* Please see the original journal article to see a picture of a ‘Beekunda’ (bee compound).