BEEKEEPING & DEVELOPMENT 40
CAMEROON
PHOTOGRAPH
AFENDIA FOI
CAMEROON
North-West Bee Farmers Association NOWEBA sees training as the most effective strategy for promoting sustainable beekeeping and improving both quality and quantity of honey, and has consequently embarked on a series of training tours. Four workshops for selected groups were organised in the Co-operative College, Bamenda, and in Mfonta 30 one-day workshops were also organised around the Province. To date NOWEBA has trained a total of 1528 bee farmers in basic skills. Source: Honey News, No 4, December 1995.
“Let's lift the lid and take a look!” Workshop participants at one of the South-West Bee Farmers Associations’ recent workshops.
NEPAL A profile of Himalayan Bee Concern Himalayan Bee Concern promotes beekeeping activities in Nepal. Its objectives are: @
To help rural people sustain their economy.
@
To organise training programmes.
CLEO CERVANCIA PHOTOGRAPH #)
PHOTOGRAPH
@
To provide the opportunity to buy beekeeping equipment using a cost-recovery system.
@ To develop strong strains of honeybees ana
To organise the sale and marketing of honey and wax.
polish.
@
To help conserve the environment by planting bee flora.
programmes are sponsored by CARE-Nepal, Cottage and Small Industry Development Agricultural Bank, FAO, GTZ, ICIMOD and USC Canada. After training is completed participants are provided with bee hives and other necessary
equipment. Rural beekeepers receive only a low price for their honey. It is usually bartered along with “ghee” (butter). HBC helps in marketing their honey, giving the beekeepers a better price.
PHILIPPINES
to
@ To provide technical expertise to members.
6
Soni Basnet
Transferring a colony of Apis cerana
To increase awareness of the advantages of keeping bees.
@ To supply equipment.
the Philippine way
CLLO CERVANCIA
Apis cerana
@
stingless bees and thus increase production of bee products and secondary products, for example candles, cosmetics, medicine and
To date HBC has provided training for 96 groups (over 3000 participants). The training
Keeping
TANZANIA Arumeru Beekeepers’ Society The objectives of the Society are:
The Bee Program of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos is actively introducing technology for indigenous bees, Apis cerana, to farmers. One advantage of using indigenous bees is their low-cost which is affordable by the small-scale farmers. It is also sustainable. The genetics team at the University is working on the morphometrics and DNA of Apis cerana populations in the whole country to identify whether there are sub-species of Apis cerana. This data will be useful in selecting races for use in beekeeping.
During regular training courses the transfer of wild colonies to hives is taught to participants. The course organisers encourage farmers to try out methods to discover which will work best for them. Cleo Cervancia
@
To create awareness amongst people that beekeeping is an industry that can create employment and useful products.
@ To link with other associations involved in
the conservation and restructuring of nature to provide a better environment for bees
The Society's motto is “Bees are Wealth,
Bees are
Development, Bees are Co-operation”.
Mr M E Makawa, ABESO Co-ordinator, PO Box 248, Usa River, Tanzania.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Beekeepers from Trinidad and Tobago embraced an opportunity to upgrade their beekeeping
knowledge and skills, when Michael Duggan, a beekeeping technical adviser attached to the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) visited the islands. The visit was arranged primarily by the Tobago Apicultural Society (TAS). Michael Duggan spent 16 days in Tobago where he conducted a workshop on honey quality and judging, beeswax processing, bee diseases, and the harvesting of pollen and royal jelly. There were also individual practical sessions with beekeepers and lectures for students at the Signal Hill Senior Comprehensive School, where TAS conducts a beekeeping project. The workshop was repeated at three venues and over 150 beekeepers and agricultural extension officers attended the workshops on both islands.
Since April 1994 TAS has been pursuing a beekeeping development programme with the assistance of funding from the Government of the Netherlands. Mr Duggan’s stay in Tobago was intended to assist the Society in the implementation of this programme.
A Bees for Development publication
t
