Zooming in on Sudan

Size

2,505,813 km² (967,000 square miles): the largest country in Africa.

Population

24.0 million

GNP

$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)

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

Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum. (Demonstration apiary at Shambat).

Projects

1920's: H H King develops the Khartoum hive and the Omdurman hive.

1977: Lutheran World Relief commission study of beekeeping in southern Sudan. 8 month project in western Equatoria — counterpart agency Sudan Council of Churches.

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.

Beekeeping projects started in UNHCR refugee villages in eastern region.

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.

A number of projects run by Church organisations are also underway in the south.

Association

SUBA (Sudan Bee and Agriculture Association), Sudan.

Honeybee diseases

Only documented occurrence is the bacterium, Serratia marcescens.

Previous articles

Newsletter 8: Apis florea in Africa

Newsletter 11: Letters to the Editor

Newsletter 12: Letters to the Editor

Newsletter 15: Hive-Aid

Further reading

Efforts to improve beekeeping in Sudan (1989)

M S A El-Sarrag; S K A Nagi. Proceedings 4th 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.