News

BELIZE

Africanized honeybees arrived in Belize in late 1987 and with them came the same disruptions that have been experienced in most of South and Central America. Beekeepers were completely unprepared to deal with the aggressiveness of the Africanized bees. The total number of colonies in Toledo District dropped from 1100 in 1986 to 382 in 1989. Practising beekeepers decreased from 67 in 1987 to 18 in 1989 and honey production fell from 17 000 kg to 2750 kg in 1987. The Maya Indian beekeepers faced a loss of income and the Southern Beekeepers’ Co-operative Society considered closing its doors and disbanding by mid-1989. But in spite of all the problems associated with Africanized honeybees, a spirit of determination and confidence prevailed. It is hard to keep a beekeeper down for long!

The Southern Beekeepers’ Co-operative received accounting and bookkeeping training from BEST (see Newsletter 13) and is planning to expand services for its members and the public by selling agricultural supplies. The acreages of citrus, cocoa, bananas and mangoes are increasing rapidly in the district and so is demand for hardware and fertiliser. The profit from their sale will keep the Co-operative in business until honey production returns to normal. Most active beekeepers now have coveralls, gloves, veil and a smoker and they are beginning to be cautiously optimistic about managing Africanized bees. Swarming and absconding are still problems but extension officers are promoting supplemental feeding, making divisions and swarm trapping.

Finally, the Marimba top-bar hive is generating some interest. Field trials will begin in January 1990 to test acceptance and yield. The top-bar hive is a low-cost alternative for beginners and takes advantage of the unique characteristics of the Africanized honeybee.

(Tom Hyden, Peace Corps Volunteer, Ministry of Agriculture)

African or Africanized? . . find out on page 12

EGYPT

Varroa disease has recently been identified in two Governorates of the Nile Delta. This means that Varroa has now been confirmed right across northern Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

GHANA

A busy year for beekeeping projects in the Northern Region was rounded off in December with a successful two-day workshop at Kpatinga in the Gushegu- Karag district. Though originally planned for the district capital, Gushegu, it was agreed to move it 12 km to the village where it would have a greater impact in introducing modern methods to traditional beekeepers.

The workshop coincided with a visit to the north by Hannah Schreckenbach of German Appropriate Technology, who was in Ghana to review progress on projects under her responsibility. An encouraging 94 people attended the workshop, but only four of these were women and Mrs Schreckenbach asked the chief of the village, Kpatinga Lana, and his elders to encourage more women to take up beekeeping. GRATIS has promised the chief that another workshop will be staged in March to ensure that the benefits of beekeeping are spread to the poor rural communities of the north.

Lectures were conducted by Margaret Owusu, on secondment to GRATIS from the Technology Consultancy Centre's Apiculture Promotion Unit, and by Nelson Akukumah, GRATIS Rural Industries Officer. They instructed participants in the installation of five bee hives made at the Tamale ITTU. Prior to the workshop, they had accompanied Trainee Beekeeping Officer, Edward Azumah, on visits to various women’s groups in Tamale who had been given bee hives. The Northern Regional branch of the 31st December Women’s Movement were not keeping their hives properly, but they assured the team of their continued interest and offered to pay for the hives. The group also visited the towns of Nyankpala and Tolon, near Tamale, to inspect hives.

Extension visits carried out at various locations in Tamale by RAWID officer David Mensah to find out if hives had been harvested revealed that last year's unusually heavy rains had badly hit beekeeping activities. The bees had fed on their honey because rain prevented them from foraging, so most combs in the hives were empty and no harvests were recorded for the rainy season. Beekeepers in these areas were advised to feed their bees to ensure survival and enhance honey yields during the usual harvesting season from February to March.

In the south, GRATIS has started a credit scheme to enable prospective beekeepers to obtain hives and to encourage participants at workshops to become beekeepers. Under the scheme, drawn up by the Financial Advisor Jean Dupont, GRATIS will finance the hives for Tema ITTU and, after giving them to new beekeepers, will harvest and sell the honey to help pay for the cost of the hives. Any excess money will be paid to the beekeeper, who must agree that hives not yet paid for or neglected can be removed and re-allocated.

(Nelson Akukumah and Charles Ofori Addo, GRATIS News, January 1990)

GUINEA BISSAU

In October, the Beekeeping Department of the Ministry of Rural development and Agriculture in Guinea Bissau hosted a five-day seminar for beekeeping development. It was the first national seminar. 30 participants took part in fruitful and stimulating discussions about beekeeping development. Two ongoing projects in Bagri and Cabo- Tfangue were used as examples to copy in the future.

Among several guest speakers, the Minister of State, Carlos Correia, gave a stimulating talk about the value of bees and beekeeping for pollination, environmental protection and for rural development. He stressed that Guinea Bissau was going to remain a “green” country and that the country should protect itself from the kind of ecological catastrophes that are beginning to be realised elsewhere.

(B Svensson, Bikonsult HB, Box 5034, Oja, S-733, Sala, Sweden)

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Trinidad and Tobago have US$500 000 from the Inter-American Development Bank Fund for Special Operations to carry out a credit programme for low income farmers. The Bank also approved a US$105 000 technical cooperation grant to strengthen the executing agency, the non-profit Association for Caribbean Transformation (ACT). The credits will finance various projects including beekeeping.

(IDB News)

UGANDA

Starting beekeeping in Bunyaruguru County — Bushenyi

I had never tasted honey before I visited Kabale town in 1979. I was surprised to find people drinking their local brew mixed with honey. enquired how honey I could be collected in such large quantities and enjoyed the mixture (Enturire) of honey and brew. | became interested in developing a honey project in my own region, 260 km north-east of Kabale.

In 1980, I visited local beekeepers in my county who had a few traditional hives. They took me around their sites. On approaching them I heard a noise which scared me but the farmers encouraged me to get near the hives.

The noise increased and it took some time to reach one of the hives. Finally I came close and saw how busy the bees were. After that I was interested to keep bees on my own site. The traditional hives are made of shrubs and fibres. I ordered 10 hives and placed them near a coffee plantation and stream. I started on 15 May 1981: on 15 June four hives had been colonised, by the end of July all 10 hives had bees. Ever since I have continued looking after my hives and improved my methods of caring for them. My income has increased.

In 1985 I approached the Ministry of Animal Resources, Apiary Section and I was advised to attend beekeeping seminars at the District Farm Institute. have so far attended four. At these seminars I learnt how to use top-bar hives and now almost all beekeepers in the area use top-bar hives because of their successful productive capacity compared with traditional hives.

In January 1986, we met in the county and incorporated a company known as “Tropical Projects Ltd”. This company specialises in beekeeping extension with the aim of collecting honey and wax in large quantities.

So far we have 150 beekeepers with over 2500 colonies. Most of our hives are traditional type but we intend to acquire more top-bar hives when funds become available. Out of 150 beekeepers 70 are women.

We sell our honey to local groceries and we have received orders from West Germany, Saudi Arabia and France, but we are limited because of our low production capacity. We are held up by lack of funds to expand the project. This is because many people have come to understand how economic beekeeping is compared with other local enterprises.

(Hilary M Mbabazi)

ZIMBABWE

Apiculture in Zimbabwe goes back a long way. Traditional keeping and honey hunting were very popular in the early half of this century. 20 years ago, the Department of Conservation and Extension opened a Bee Centre at Mazawe. Beekeeping was introduced to small-scale and large commercial farmers. The Department of Agritex was created in 1980 and beekeeping expanded through the rural areas. Most beekeepers in Zimbabwe are found in Mashonaland and Manicaland Provinces.

In rural areas logs, barks and clay pots are still used as hives. Some hunters are still going up mountains inspecting every cave and hollow tree for colonies. Transitional beekeeping has been introduced to a few traditional beekeepers. This has been achieved by creating awareness and_ holding demonstrations with the farmers. Greek country beekeepers harvest honey and sell to commercial farmers who own refineries. At the moment there are no groups which process their own produce.

One-week beekeeping courses are conducted at the Bee Centre where groups of beekeepers and extension agents receive lessons. Mr Schmolke is also involved in breeding queens which he kindly distributes to keepers on request.

(G Murungu, Department of Agriculture, Kadoma)