News

BURMA

Beekeeping is being encouraged by the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, with increasing success each year. This work has been carried out at 50 beekeeping stations in Mandalay, Sagaing, Rangoon, Magwe and Pegu Divisions and Karen State. There are now more than 3000 colonies of Apis mellifera and Apis cerana. Short-term beekeeping courses have been conducted since 1985 and so far 935 such courses have taken place. In 1987-88 colonies of bees were migrated to some 160000 ha of oil seed crops. The Department is giving priority to producing pure honey for domestic consumption and it exports only the surplus. The current annual target for honey production is 17000kg and production is expected to exceed this target. The Beekeeping Department is selling honey and other products such as Satumadu, garlic honey, ginger honey, cookies made of honey, honey bread, honey pudding and concentrated honey wine at the Diplomatic Stores, department stores and stalls of the Livestock Breeding Corporation. We hope that beekeeping will replace the cultivation of the opium poppy, making pure honey available for domestic consumption and for export and help increase production of various crops by ensuring pollination.

(The Guardian, 29 February 1988. Sent by SawAung Myint)

COOK ISLANDS

A workshop on the care and management of bees for honey production was held at the University of the South Pacific Centre, Rarotonga in July 1988. Sponsorship was provided by CTA (The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation) and IRETA (The Institute for Research, Extension and Training in Agriculture).

15 beekeepers from both public and private sectors travelled from Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Niue and Western Samoa to join Cook Island beekeepers for the workshop. For five days they received lectures on the management of honeybees, honey handling, maintenance of equipment, diseases, and the role of government regulations in beekeeping, and also participated in field work.

(Workshop co-ordinator, Dr S Victor Rajakulendran)

COSTA RICA

An IDB loan to Fundacién de Clubes 4-S (FUNAC) was designed to meet the needs for credit of low-income youth in Costa Rica. FUNAC is a government agency that helps young, rural people who lack access to traditional sources of rural credit.

Rafael Fallas Urefia, 20 years old, of

Santa Maria de Dota, received a loan of 6025 colonies (about US$600) from the 4-S Club to purchase bees and hives to start his project. Rafael helps support his family selling honey from the hives, and also works as a house painter. He received a second 4-S Club loan of 6300 colonies to purchase pollen collectors (pollen sells for 300 colonies per kilogram). During his first year of operation he had a net profit of 9125 colonies. He invested a little more than half this (5000 colonies) back into his business, buying a honey extractor and materials for a shed which he built himself to house his beekeeping equipment.

(InterAmerican Development Bank)

INDIA

The Punjab government has decided to set up honey processing plants to improve the quality of honey being produced by the state beekeepers. This was announced at a state level conference of 700 beekeepers. The beekeepers brought to the notice of the state government the problems they face. The main points included marketing facilities, higher limit of loan, processing plants to improve the quality of honey and related facilities like quality boxes and training facilities. It was suggested that the government should open honey bars on the pattern of milk bars and an official should be appointed in each district for this purpose. Mrs Parween Singh, who has been exporting honey, demanded that licences should be issued to export honey.

Mr Manohar Singh Gill (additional chief secretary) said another meeting would be held at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to discuss points raised by the beekeepers. Punjab presently produces 700 tonnes of honey and the ultimate potential is 90 000 tonnes. There are 6500 beekeepers in the state with 68 000 colonies. The Punjab government started the beekeeping scheme on a pilot basis in Gurdaspur district in 1982 and later extended it to Hoshiarpur, Roapr and Ludhiana districts in 1987-88. The districts of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Sangrur have been included in the current year. The Punjab government is considering a proposal to introduce a scheme under which the PAIC would undertake procurement of honey, processing and reselling on a project basis.

(Indian Express, July 1988. Sent by S S Bajwa)

MOROCCO

UNIFEM, the Consultative Committee of the UN Development Fund for Women convened its 24th session in New York last September. This Committee meets twice a year to identify priority projects for immediate financing. 12 projects requiring US$3.5 million were pin-pointed, including a credit scheme to help rural women with a beekeeping production programme in Morocco.

(UNDP World Development, November 1988)

MOZAMBIQUE

A national meeting was held in October 1988 with the objective of examining the activities of the National Beekeeping Programme since its establishment five years ago. 75 participants represented every province of Mozambique, and discussed the organisation of the programme, and the training provided. Resolutions passed at the meeting included a request that farmers who undertake fumigation programmes must inform neighbouring beekeepers, and that introduction to beekeeping should be compulsory in training institutions.

(Mathew Kawa, Beekeeping Technical Advisor)

NORTH KOREA

Honey is widely used in Korea as the basic material for honey buns, honey candies and tea, as well as for kyongokgo and other traditional Korean tonics and restoratives. It is one of the foodstuffs which helps man to live long and is much in demand.

Mt Oga is situated in the northern mountainous region of Korea; it is covered with primary forest where many plants grow, including wild Insam (ginseng) a celebrated elixir of life. The mountain belongs to Hwapyong County, Changang Province. The honey produced in this country is popular throughout the whole nation.

Native bees were traditionally kept in wooden hives. The honey quality was good, but productivity was very low. Bees such as the “improved golden” and “black species” are now kept in square hives to raise their productivity.

The native bees produce less honey per hive than the “improved” species, but their respective yearly output totals about the same. This is because the keeping of the improved species is confined to the period from May to July, but the native bees produce honey throughout the summer (from May till September when there are frosts). The honey produced by native bees in traditional hives is of good quality, with a moisture content of 7-10%. Honey harvested from the “improved” bees in square hives contains 30-40% moisture.

The native bees are quite vital. They are far more resistant to diseases than the “improved” species and withstand cold weather and humidity well. The “improved” bees can tide over the winter only above zero, but the native ones do not perish easily even in sub-zero temperatures. They need about half as much feed as the “improved” bees to pass the winter, and live much longer.

(Korea Today)

NEVIS

Prior to 1987 beekeepers on Nevis were mainly involved in “honey cutting” activities. That is, they would seek out feral nests of bees Apis mellifera and cut them for their honey. Wax, brood and bees were often lost, although the better “honey-cutters” would leave some brood and honey so the nest might eventually re- establish.

In 1984 an ODA Land Use Specialist, Mr Ian Corker was posted to Nevis, having previously had involvement with beekeepers on Montserrat. Mr Corker encouraged the formation of the Nevis Beekeepers’ Association and funds for ten Langstroth hives and other equipment were obtained from the British High Commission in Antigua. With the blessing of the Nevis Ministry of Agriculture, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) were approached to provide a volunteer. Barclays Bank International agreed to fund a monthly allowance and a motor-cycle for the volunteer.

Since September 1987 there has been steady progress in movable-frame hive beekeeping on Nevis. USAID have provided US$5000 to purchase a further 80 beehives, improved extracting equipment and more veils, smokers and gloves. Other sources of funding have been the Caribbean Conference of Churches, Youth Skills Training Programme/OAS, Peace Corps Volunteer Sideline Projects, and VSO who provided US$1000 “seed” money to help get the project off the ground.

By tradition honey is sold on Nevis, and indeed in many West Indian islands, in rum bottles. On Nevis at present 375 g “squeeze bears” and 375 g “squeeze containers” are being introduced. These containers are lightweight, cheap to freight here and being plastic they do not break in transit. They are proving to be very popular with visitors to the island who are the greatest (and cheapest)

exporters of ‘Delicious Nevis Honey‘! One of the problems of marketing honey in these islands is that most have their own small -beekeeping industry and are understandably not inclined to import honey from elsewhere. Beeswax candles are being made from cappings and wax, and these too are popular with visitors.

(Quentin Henderson, VSO Beekeeping Assistant on Nevis)

SYRIA

Today, Syrian beekeepers have more than 50 000 Langstroth hives. The high price of honey (250 £Syr per kg) and the brisk demand helped the progression of beekeeping at a yearly rate of more than 25%. Honey production per hive is 25-50 kg.

It is easy to understand why Syrians did not abandon beekeeping in spite of all the damages that Varroa caused in 1984 destroying 99% of some apiaries and 50% of others, however many hobbyist beekeepers ceded their places to professionals. Phenothiazine and strips impregnated with Amitraz are commonly used against Varroa. The greatest enemies of bees are hornets and wasps which are confronted with traps, glue, poison and nest destruction, and American and European foulbrood and waxmoth.

Walid Kasso, a Syrian beekeeper with many hives, transports them to Damascus during winter because of the fine weather and the presence of a great variety of nectar flowers such as “Fejjayieh”, and the almond and apricot trees which bloom early and produce pollen for brood rearing. After Damascus the hives are moved to Golan where they remain until the end of May to take advantage of the clover, then they are taken to Kalamoon where anise and eucalyptus flower during June. Later they are transported to Houran and Alep to suck the ‘Hallab‘ which gives the best Syrian honey.

A Beekeepers’ Association has now been founded in Syria. It quickly gathered hundreds of beekeepers (2000 in two months). The Ministry of Agriculture will also create two centres in Damascus and Lattakyeh for the selection and sales of Syrian queen bees. Syrian beekeeping develops with huge leaps: the variety and richness of the flower fields, the enthusiasm of the beekeepers, added to the favourable climate and the encouragement of the government and most of all, the high price of honey and the big demand, make beekeeping prospects 100% positive.

(Rashid Yazbek, Yazbek Honey Est, Jedeidet Beirut, Lebanon)