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Information from ICIMOD - Himalayan farmers and indigenous honeybees
by Farooq Ahmad, Surendra Raj Joshi, and Min Bahadur Gurung, ICIMOD, Nepal
This is the second article in the series bringing news about the work of the Austrian Government funded beekeeping project at ICIMOD in Kathmandu, Nepal. Austroprojekt GmbH in Vienna, and ICIMOD jointly manage the project. In B&D 58 we told you about the main features of the project ‘Indigenous Honeybees of the Himalayas’. Here is more news of our project activities.
REARING QUEENS OF APIS CERANA
In the mountain areas of Nepal, beekeeping with the indigenous Apis cerana is one of the most popular backyard income-generating activities amongst the poorest people. However, populations of Apis cerana are in decline. The main reasons appear to be:
- limited knowledge about bee management among beekeeping communities;
- a decrease in foraging areas due to expansion of agriculture into new sites;
- regular disease epidemics and lack of appropriate disease control research;
- the managed introduction and patronisation of European honeybees, Apis mellifera by regional and national institutions;
- absence of an adequate infrastructure for queen rearing and selective breeding.
One of our project activities is to address the last of these problem areas. The aim is to train a core group of people who will be able to provide local support and training in queen rearing. In the long term, we hope that these people will be able to supply selected queen bees in the village areas and help improve the productivity and popularity of Apis cerana across the region. A two-week training course on queen rearing of Apis cerana was held in Kathmandu (where the project has its own apiaries) during February and March this year, with technical support from the Honey Bee Research Institute of Pakistan. Sixteen beekeepers and staff from the project’s partner institutions in Nepal took part.
The training programme was designed to be practical, participatory, needs based, and results-oriented. Participants were taught how to schedule queen rearing operations using local resources. This included how to divide colonies, prepare queen cups, and graft — both with and without grafting needles, instead using matchsticks and toothpicks, which are readily available. At the end of the fortnight, the trainees were pleased with their progress and enthusiastic about launching their own village-level, queen rearing activities. We are confident that this training will help strengthen our Apis cerana selection programme at grass-roots level.
NETWORKING INITIATIVE
Nepal is blessed with a diversity of honeybee species and beekeeping and honey hunting traditions. Research and development support are needed for these to give more benefit to farmers. There are a number of government, non-government and grass-roots organisations, and individuals carrying out research into the development of beekeeping, honey collection, and marketing. The work is scattered and has had little impact on the overall beekeeping scenario. Our project is focusing on the development of an active network linking the whole honeybee community in Nepal, from local people through research groups, to government departments and marketing interests. Everyone involved can tell others first hand what they need, what their constraints are, and what they can offer.
A one-day ‘getting-to-know’ meeting was organised in February. Honey hunters, local beekeepers, representatives of INGOs, NGOs, and government departments, people with commercial interests, and even bank representatives met together to discuss the formation of a network and the best way forward. This was a major milestone; the first time in the history of the country that grass-roots beekeepers and honey hunters had been invited to take part in a discussion forum.
Interested participants formed a working group that was given the task of deciding the structure, constitution, and strategy for the network.
Next time in B&D: ow project work with the honey hunting communities
EXPLANATION
ICIMOD is The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an international organisation devoted to the development of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.
