BEEKEEPING
AND DEVELOPMENT
ZOOMING IN ON SUDAN Size 2,505,813 km? (967,000 square miles): the largest country in Africa.
Population GNP
~
CHAD
24.0 million
KHARTOUM
$300 (Agriculture accounts for 30% of GNP}
Main agriculture Cotton, peanuts, sorghum, sesame, wheat, gum Arabic, sugar, barley. The first four of these are major export crops.
Honeybees Apis mellifera (indigenous, and introduced from
Egypt)
ETHIOPIA
Apis florea (introduced, probably from Western Asia.
Beekeeping
Traditional: clay pots; cylindrical hives made from logs; grasses woven into mats and rolled up: leaves of the doum palm. These are known as tangels. Modern, low-technology: Kenya top-bar hives; the Omdurman hive (clay); Gufa hive (basket). Modern, frame: Langstroth.
Melliferous vegetation
Tremendous diversity. Northern Sudan is desert, and indigenous honeybees do not exist north of Khartoum. Travelling south rainfall increases, and so does vegetation, through areas of savannah until finally the lush rainforests near Sudan's southern boundaries with Zaire, Uganda and Kenya.
Number of beekeepers Unknown, but certainly thousands. Beekeeping is practised throughout Sudan wherever the environment permits the survival of flowering plants and their associated native pollinators, honeybees.
Beekeeping and Development recipients — 38 Beekeeping department
ZAIRE Beekeeping projects started villages in eastern region.
in
“% L
A number of projects run by Church
organisations are also underway in the south.
Association SUBA (Sudan Bee and Agriculture Association) PO Box 48, Khartoum, Sudan.
Honeybee diseases
Projects
Previous articles
1977: Report on beekeeping in Sudan prepared on behalf of Ciba-Geigy.
1981-1983: Feasibility study and survey by Near East Foundation (NEF) of flora, honeybee populations and beekeeping. 1983-present: NEF funds National Beekeeping Project. Counterparts — University of Khartoum; Sudan National Council for Research. Demonstration apiaries established at: University of Khartoum (Shambat}; Wad Medani Agricultural Research Station and Kosti White Nile Station.
KENYA
1985: ICRAF commission survey of beekeeping potential in Western Sudan. 1986-1988: NEF Obtain ‘Band Aid Trust’ funding for additional project in Kubbum. (Western Sudan Beekeeping Project). 1989: 18 month project by FAO; consultancy services, training, equipment and materials. 1988-1991: Band Aid funding continued.
Only documented occurrence is the bacterium,
1977: Lutheran World Relief commission study of beekeeping in southern Sudan. 8 month project in western Equatoria — counterpart agency Sudan Council of Churches.
\
UNHCR refugee
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum. (Demonstration apiary at Shambat). 1920's: H H King develops the Khartoum hive and the Omdurman hive.
UGANDA
Serratia marcescens.
Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter
A Sudanese bark
hive.
8: Apis florea in Africa 11: Letters to the Editor 12: Letters to the 15: Hive-Aid
Editor
Further reading
Efforts to improve beekeeping in Sudan (1989) El-Sarrag; S K A Nagi. Proceedings 4th
MS
A
International Conference on Apiculture in Tropical Climates, Cairo 1988. Published by IBRA.
Behavioural study on native Sudanese honeybees (1989) M S A El-Sarrag; M Ragab: AM Ali. Proceedings 4th International Conference
on Apiculture in Tropical Climates, Cairo 1988.
Published by IBRA.
Further details of projects and many more articles and papers are held in the IBRA Library. ELEVEN
