BEEKEEPING
&
DEVELOPMENT
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HIVE AID Api-Promo - Promotion of small-scale beekeeping in developing countries
NG CONFERENCE AL NATIONAL BEEKEL G AND NATION
In
It is hoped that developing
countries will benefit from Api-Promo in the following ways: Activities of on-going projects can be optimised through the international information network Api-Promo provides; Standards for the assessment of strategies and promotional activities for the most important fields of beekeeping will be developed. Considering regional aspects and problems, these standards will be put at the disposal of the projects;
Api-Promo will support government and NGOs offering extension and other services for beekeeping;
The project may also secure co-operation with German and international institutions in case close scientific assistance is needed.
For more information contact:
Api-Promo GTZ, Bieneninstitut, Webhlstrasse 4a, 29221 Celle, Germany. Fax: 49 5141 6048. The Project Co-ordinator is Mr Werner Lohr or
GTZ-HO, Department 422, Ms Annette von Lossau, Room 1476, Postfach 5180, 65726.Eschborn, Germany. Fax: 49 6196 79 6103
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KWAME AIDOO
May 1995 the German Centre for Technical Co-operation (GTZ), on behalf of the Ministry of Economics and Co-operation started the three year Api-Promo project. The objective is to support farmers and beekeepers to make better use of natural resources in beekeeping. A concept for sustainable promotion of beekeeping will be designed and applied in several countries,
EEPERS ASSOCIATION GHABA
probable source is European queens imported into South Africa by legal or illegal means, regularly for the last 100 years. “Sooner or later such foolishness was bound to have a ,
price’, says Dr Allsopp. Source:
Capensis, January 1995
The ‘Bolga Na-aba’ the Chief of Bolgatanga addressing delegates at the Conference. On his left is the Deputy Minister
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for Agriculture in charge of the Upper East Region of Ghana.
GHANA The Second Conference of the Ghana Beekeepers’ Association (GHABA) was held in Bolgatanga in March 1995. Over 100 delegates from all over Ghana took part. The theme of the Conference was “Beekeeping and National Development”. A workshop on the first day covered apitherapy, appropriate hives for Ghana, and stingless bee beekeeping.
A speech from the Minister of Food and Agriculture brought some good news: a National Beekeeping Project is being launched in 1995. Included in the project is the transfer of improved beekeeping practices to farmers through the Extension Services Department. GHABA will be contracted to train all these front-line staff to effect the new programme. During the Conference the first school of beekeeping, founded in 1994 by Mr Alias Ayeebo, was inaugurated. Seventy-two students are following an 18-month intensive programme which includes beekeeping, afforestation, botany, business studies, rural development and woodwork. Many students plan to set up their own beekeeping projects upon graduation.
visit to local beekeepers and places of interest in the region concluded the activities of this three-day Conference.
A
Mrs Margaret Barbour, President of the Royal Warrant Holders’ Association, congratulates James Hamill on his scholarship
James Hamill, whose family have been beekeepers for three generations, has won a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship worth 6,000. James combines an acting career with beekeeping, which he began commercially in 1985. He opened The Hive Honey Shop in London in 1992 and makes over 80 handmade bee-related products from Victorian and Edwardian recipes for sale. He maintains 100 colonies, breeds queen bees, builds his own hives and equipment, runs adult evening courses, and free bee courses for children in his shop which contains an observation hive. As a collector of hives from around the world, he is currently recreating an octagonal tiered hive drawn by Christopher Wren (the architect of St Paul's Cathedral), from designs
published in 1655.
Kwame Aidoo, B&D’s correspondent in Ghana
ZAIRE
SOUTH AFRICA
Beekeeping in Bas Zaire
The tracheal mite Acarapis
has been found on Apis mellifera capensis queens for shipment to Germany. Dr Mike Allsopp suggests the woodi
Honey hunting has been a traditional activity in the Bas Zaire region for many years. Honey is often taken from wild colonies in holes in
A Bees for Development publication
