Fourth International Conference on Agriculture in Tropical Climates

The fourth Conference in this series was Convened by IBRA and hosted by the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the International Centre for Agriculture at Dokki in central Cairo. Delegates from 58 countries travelled to Egypt to participate in the Conference, and for five days were able to exchange News and views on all aspects of beekeeping in the tropics.

Egypt proved an interesting venue for the Conference; ancient temples Provide evidence of beekeeping in hives as early as 2460BC and many delegates took the opportunity to visit Luxor where scenes in tombs of nobles depict beekeeping practised in 1500 BC. In his keynote address Dr Mazeed (Director of the Government Beekeeping Research Section) gave details of beekeeping practised by the Pharaohs who already appreciated the advantages of migratory beekeeping. Each spring in Southern Egypt boats were loaded with hives and sailed down the Nile, travelling North and keeping Pace with flowering times. An early form of a Plimsoll line marked on the side of the boats revealed when hives were full and it was time to turn home.

In the more recent past, in 1923, Dr Ahmed Abushady founded an Egyptian beekeeping group, The Bee Kingdom League. This was the same Abushady who in 1919 in Oxfordshire in the UK published the first issue of a new journal, The Bee World and formed the Apis Club, which has gradually evolved and developed into the present IBRA. This connection between IBRA and Egypt was discussed by Dr Eva Crane in her keynote address, but the major part of her talk focused on our knowledge of tropical honeybees and their management. Dr Crane emphasised how many facts’ regarding bees and beekeeping actually refer only to Apis mellifera managed in temperate zones. Even some books written for beekeepers in the tropics quote facts about temperate zone bees as if they were applicable to tropical honeybees, when this is not true.

In convening the Conference IBRA takes responsibility for organising the scientific programme, which ranges from the biology of tropical bees to consideration of beekeeping projects for rural development.

We received a larger number of papers for this Conference than ever before: this resulted in two and sometimes three sessions running concurrently. Below is given a brief description of the sessions and some of the subsequent debates that took place.

Bee management techniques and problems

Details of commercial harvesting of bee products can be difficult to obtain so delegates were interested to hear about successful commercial pollen production and processing. Other interesting papers described the use of the Bekyem plant in Ghana to subdue bees, and a workable method of queen tearing in Tanzania.

Bee products for the benefit of human health

A walk around Egyptian markets soon reveals the importance of natural medicines in this area of the world, and this is reflected in the work of apicultural scientists in Egypt who have devoted much attention to the use of bee products for human health. In this session scientific assays for antibiotic and healing effects of propolis and honey were described.

Crop pollination and honeybee forage

Pollination experiments and surveys of honeybee flora were reported from tropical Africa, Asia and America. One encouraging outcome from this session was that particularly in Asia, there is growing recognition of the value of pollination. For example in some areas of India beekeeping is being encouraged primarily to increase crop yields, rather than as a source of honey production.

The importation of honeybees, benefits and problems

This was a new session introduced to reflect the adverse impact on world beekeeping of imported honeybees with undesirable characteristics and bearing disease. The recent identification of Apis florea in Sudan was discussed and a resolution formulated to further assess the impact of this introduction. However not all honeybee introductions have deleterious effects and the Conference heard of the success achieved through carefully supervised and controlled introduction of non- native honeybees to Israel.

Beekeeping in integrated rural development programmes

Beekeeping projects in Africa, Asia, America and the Pacific were described. The range included projects such as that in Papua New Guinea which is well established, already meeting the home honey market requirement and exporting surplus honey, and at the other end of the scale a project in Swaziland which has only just started in the last few years. Beekeeping is increasingly understood and appreciated as part of agroforestry systems and much debate centred on the use of bark hives: for a number of years their use has been generally discouraged because the removal of bark always results in the death of the tree. However delegates from Zambia demonstrated that the manufacture and use of bark hives is a worthwhile and sustainable use of forest resources: each hive lasts for many years and sources of income from tropical forests for local, rural people should be encouraged. Modern conservationists understand that forests cannot be maintained per se without involving local people, and beekeeping is one further way of enhancing the value of remaining forests.

Pest control safe for honeybees

Much useful research in this area is underway, but beekeepers attending the session were left with the feeling that we are preaching to the converted: it is those who are not interested in beekeeping who must be persuaded about the potential harm of pesticides. As at previous Conferences a_ resolution called for governments to form bodies made up of pesticide users and beekeepers, and it was recommended that FAO, who are currently preparing a code of conduct for pesticide usage, be urged to stress the dangers of pesticides to honeybees.

Honey and beeswax: quality standards and marketing

Processing and marketing of honey and wax are important aspects of interest to all involved with beekeeping projects, and success in this area may to a large extent determine the success of the project. For example, delegates heard from a beekeeping project in Guinea-Bissau where a simple candle-making technique has been developed using bamboo stems as moulds for the candles. The success of the candle production has strongly motivated local people to participate in the beekeeping project. Other papers gave details of honey processing and marketing, and also descriptions of on- going honey analysis in Egypt, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Venezuela.

Education and training and encouraging women as beekeepers

A very lively and encouraging session with details of new training efforts around the developing world. It was good to hear of interventions to specifically involve women in training and a number of women's beekeeping projects have already proved successful. However a cautionary note was sounded: with various aid agencies currently interested in funding projects specifically for women there may be a tendency to obtain funds for women’s beekeeping projects without fully considering the real potential for such a project in a given location. Beekeeping should not be considered in isolation from the rest of the community and its customs and skills. Beekeeping is most likely to be found useful by rural people if it fits in well with their other activities.

Appropriate beekeeping equipment

It was evident by the end of this session that project workers are giving greater thought and attention to the question of which beekeeping equipment really is appropriate to particular situations. Much of the problem with inappropriate equipment stems from the issue raised by Eva Crane at the start of the Conference: that most knowledge of beekeeping relates to temperate-zone races of Apis mellifera managed in temperate climates, and this same technology has been widely introduced to the tropics where it is not necessarily inappropriate. At the previous Conference in Nairobi (1984) debate centred on low-technology top-bar hives, their design and improvement. Hive design is of course a most important aspect of beekeeping development and is continuously advancing, but at this Conference there seemed to be greater appreciation of traditional beekeeping and the skills involved: these have not always been appreciated by those who would seek to ‘improve’ beekeeping.

Mite parasites, pests and diseases of honeybees

The recent and rapid spread of Varroa jacobsoni must alert the beekeeping world to the irrevocable problems which man can cause by importation of diseased honeybees. Considerable debate focused on the consequence of Varroa jacobsoni or Tropilaelaps clareae spreading into Africa south of the Sahara: the presence of Apis florea in Sudan makes this possibility all the more likely. Another topic for debate was the possibility of Tropilaelaps clareae being spread further westwards towards the Middle East and the Mediterranean. As a step towards preventing such disasters the Conference formulated a resolution encouraging governments to tighten control of honeybee export and import. Although such resolutions are much easier to formulate than to enforce, we must continue to emphasise the great dangers of honeybee importation.

African honeybees

This session served to further underline the variation and adaptability of the large variety of races of Apis mellifera which we loosely term ‘African honeybees’. Our knowledge of the biology of these bees is still short but it was encouraging to hear of new research coming from various areas of Africa.

Asian honeybees

Knowledge of the biology and behaviour of Apis dorsata has moved on considerably in the last few years, and as elsewhere, there is greater understanding of the importance of traditional honey-collecting practises: in Asia too this custom provides local people with income from remaining tropical forests. In both this and the previous session it was regularly mentioned that a problem with tropical honeybees is their tendency to swarm and abscond: however reports of success in controlling this feature are rare. It was therefore good to hear from a beekeeper working in India of the methods that he has found successful in preventing absconding. (This paper will be featured in a future edition of Newsletter)

Africanized honeybees

Perhaps the most alarming session at the Conference! Africanized honeybees are a serious problem in many regions of America and this is the one tropical honeybee for which research funding is available: new information on the biology of Africanized honeybees was presented and the steps taken by the United States and Mexico to control the further spread of the honeybee were discussed. The message from this session was that Africanized honeybees, because they have evolved to survive in the tropics, put effort into absconding and swarming rather than into building up honey stores to survive winter dearth periods (as do temperate-zone honeybees). For this reason Africanized honeybees often do not produce as much honey as previous European honeybees in the same area.

It was generally agreed that the Conference was a great success although, as at all such meetings, there were a few difficulties, one of which was locating the Conference Secretariat! We began the week working alongside papyrus sellers in the entrance of the Conference Hall, we gradually moved around the building as the week progressed, arriving in our own office by the end of the week.

On two evenings during the Conference we enjoyed informal sessions when delegates described beekeeping in their home countries, and displayed videos and other extension materials: these often demonstrated not only the beekeeping skills but also the ingenuity of those involved with beekeeping development! The linguistic abilities of apiculturalists must also be admired; there was always someone willing to translate when two delegates of different native tongues wished to converse.

A special feature of this Conference was the distribution to delegates of a number of beekeeping publications: Arabic speakers received the new Arabic language beekeeping dictionary funded by the Near East Foundation (for further details see Bookshelf), FAO generously donated copies of their beekeeping publications, and a number of the ODA-funded information charts were also available.

Other useful outcomes from the Conference: the Arab-speaking delegates organised the inaugural meeting resolved to form a Regional Union, and various regional meetings and workshops were also planned.... And the venue for the next Conference? A full Council of IBRA will decide the venue after further consultation with prospective hosts.

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Many of the delegates would not have been able to participate without the support of aid agencies including the British Council, Deutsche Gesellschaft fir Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), International Foundation for Science (IFS), Near East Foundation (NEF), New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Humanitarian Aid (SBC), Technology Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) and Traidcraft Exchange UK. We gratefully acknowledge the support of these organisations, and of Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (ADAG) and IDRC in Cairo who contributed towards the costs of staging the Conference.