Zoom in on Cote d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire is on the West African coast situated between Ghana and Liberia facing the Gulf of Guinea.

Capital city: Yamoussoukro

Climate and vegetation The climate is humid tropical in the southern half and sub-humid in the north. The annual average temperature is 26°C. There are two distinct vegetation zones: the southern half of the country is dense humid forest while the northern half is characterised by open forest and savannah.

Size 322,500 km²

Population Fifteen million of whom 46% are less than 15 years old.

Economy Cote d'lvoire's economy is essentially agricultural with the principal export being cash crops of bananas, coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, rubber and pineapple. Crude. oil and timber are also exported. Main imports are manufactured goods, rice and wheat.

Honeybees

Bees, honey and beeswax are present in traditional Ivoirian pharmacopeioa, customs, rites and beliefs. The honey producing bees of Côte d'Ivoire are the honeybee Apis mellifera adansonii and stingless bees. In 1994, more than 300 colonies of Apis mellifera (of European origin) were imported from Australia. See BIDJ 42 for the outcome of this action.

Beekeeping

Honey hunting is practised throughout the country, while beekeeping is a longstanding agricultural activity in villages in the northern and central savannah regions. Many crops are grown in the northern regions that are favourable to beekeeping (including cashew, cotton, maize, mango, marrow, onion, sorghum rice and teak), in addition to their use to farmers for food and to sell. Few insecticides are used.

Honey sales generate an appreciable income for these villagers, helping them to meet their daily needs particularly in the dry season. Some succeed in using this income to pay school fees, to build and repair their houses, or to plant cashew and mango orchards.

Traditional beekeeping methods are spreading while 'modern' (frame hive) beekeeping is in the process of disappearing in the areas where it was introduced in the last two decades.

Pests and diseases

The honeybee's principal enemies are ants, lizards and moths. Colonies are not offered any treatment against diseases.

Training

Projects to develop beekeeping are financed by donors or the lvoirian government. The accent is put on short-term training for school leavers in rural areas. Although more than 2,000 young villagers have been trained most have neither the land nor the means to acquire even basic beekeeping equipment. Therefore, it is difficult to assess if these projects have had any real impact on the development of beekeeping in the country.

ANAC] (National Association of Beekeepers in Céte d'Ivoire) offers services to help traditional beekeepers upgrade their techniques and skills to improve the quality of the honey.

Trade of honeybee products

Almost all honey produced in the country is harvested by traditional beekeepers and honey hunters. Women traders, operating in the informal sector, have ‘developed networks for collecting locally produced agricultural products. They take the honey and other produce to the large urban centres for sale.

The price to the producers varies between CFA400-1000 per litre (€0.61-1.42, US$0.66-1.53) and is sold to the consumer for CFA1500-2500 (€2.14-3.57, US$2.30-3.85). ANACI estimates that about 150 tonnes of honey are sold annually. Honey is consumed almost entirely for its therapeutic qualities. Beeswax is used primarily by brass workers and batik artists.

Research

Selective but limited studies are undertaken by different local organisations. There have been pollen analyses, information gathered on traditional beekeepers and their knowledge base, production (honey and wax), microbiology and trials to determine the impact of bees on coffee and onion production.

Beekeeping equipment

Local manufacture of basic beekeeping equipment exists but is not well developed. Hives, whether frame, top-bar or traditional (of tree bark and reeds), are all produced in Céte d'lvoire.

Conclusion

Future economic and environmental benefits from lvoirian beekeeping will depend for the most part on traditional beekeepers, how the trade in hive products is organised, scientific research (ethology of the African bees, pollination of cultivated plants and the quality of the products) and above all on the quality of management of development projects.

Thanks to Virginie Palmeri, President of ANACI for providing this information.

Further reading

Almost... out of bees in Africa BfD Journal 42