News

EGYPT

Alfalfa pollination in Ismailia

Agriculture development in Egypt has been national goal for several decades, and has involved the expansion of cultivated land and maximization of production. One of the major problems facing most of the newly reclaimed areas is the relatively low production of crops due to the lack of insect pollinators. similar problem is found also in certain areas of older cultivated land due to the wide use of pesticides. The mechanisation of agriculture affected the wild pollinators as well as the honey bee industry.

Besides using honey bees to pollinate many crops and fruit trees in Egypt, we try to find other species that are efficient in pollination. Ismailia is mainly an arid zone, with agriculture concentrated around the Nile River. Much effort has been put into land reclamation and to convert the desert. We carried out survey of common bee fauna in that area and found that the major bee species are honey bee Apis mellifera, mason bee Osmia sp, and leaf cutter bee Megachile sp. The main crop in Ismailia and most newly reclaimed areas of Egypt is alfalfa. Pollination of alfalfa flowers needs to be tripped by bees, and its major pollinators are leaf-cutter and mason bees. We have attempted to establish artificial nests to replace the natural nests in the walls of the old mud houses in the villages that were destroyed to build new, concrete houses. We aim to establish leaf-cutter bee management industry and to guide the farmers to increase the seed yield production of alfalfa and other crops.

Mohamed Shebl Abd Elfatiah, Department of

Plant Protection, Suez Canal University

Fil

Fiji’s first ever honey export has left for the USA. John Lewis, Managing Director of Island Apiaries (Fiji) Ltd sold the consignment and said the dea! represents a bright future for Fiji’s fledgling honey industry. “Honey is a very profitable business that requires strong management practices,” he said. “Our honey meets the bio security requirement for the US market.” Mr Lewis started his business in 1997 and now has a farm in Tavua with50 hives and harvests 2-3 tonnes of honey per year. The honey sells for about €1 1 (US$15) for a 750 ml bottle.

Source: Spore 133, February 2008

INDIA

Climate change dents honey yield

Unseasonal rains, seen as a sign of climate change, have sharply brought down the honey yield in Kerala's Wayanad region this year, depriving the hard-pressed indigenous people of their supplementary income. “Torrential rain and strong winds have caused mass dropping of flowers in deep forests, forcing the bees to move to greener pastures to nest and extract nectar. While a total of 15,000 kg of wild honey was collected in summer 2007, the yield was estimated to be 1,500 kg this season,” said P M George, Secretary of Sulthan Bathery Scheduled Tribe Co-operative Society,

“Heavy downpours at the wrong time of the year have made the bees fly away and seek shelter on tall trees, rock crevices or termite hills,” said the chief of Rampally colony, Kumaran. “You will not get honey when flowers are not there. Many of us made arduous treks deep into the forests only to return with empty hands as we could not find many colonies this year."

Wild honey is one of the forest products whose collection and extraction is the preserve of indigenous people in the State. The honey collected is procured and marketed by Scheduled Tribe Co-operatives which has a state-level apex body. Wild honey is mostly purchased by Ayurvedic medicine makers, whose demand for natural, unadulterated honey has been on the rise.

In Wayanad, the Kattunaikkar people are the traditional honey collectors, but recently other groups have started honey hunting as it offers a supplementary income in lean months.

Source: www. hindu. com/thehindu/hoinus

INDONESIA

Sweet way to save forests

“We aim to promote sustainable honey harvesting, preserve the forest as bees’ habitat, maintaining indigenous cultures and improve the quality of the honey,” said Indonesian Forest Honey Network Executive, Valentinus Heri. He was speaking during the Honey Festival in Bogor Botanical Garden held in April 2008, at a honey product launch in collaboration with the Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) Exchange Program and another Bogor-based environmental watchdog, Telapak. The ‘Dorsata brand honey’ is harvested by the indigenous people of the preserved forest Sentarum Lake National Park in West Kalimantan.

Surianto, a member of Apis dorsata honey farmers group in Sentarum, said they harvested honey in the forest from October March, while relying on freshwater fishing to make a living for the rest of the year. Previously the people had cut trees down to harvest the honey. “Local environmental group Riak Bumi taught us how to take honey without destroying the ecosystem. We rely too much on the forest for our livelihood, so we are keeping it safe," Surianto said.

Head of National Park Management Mr Suwignyo said that the 132,000 hectare forest is the biggest wetland ecosystem in Kalimantan, and home to the indigenous /ban and Malay people. “We support the environmentalists in training residents on the best way to harvest honey. They have an approach of saving the forest through honey production,” Suwignyo said. “Each family usually has 60 tikung and 5 kg of honey can be harvested from each one,” he said.

Riak Bumi and NTFP Exchange Program formed the network, which has currently expanded to work with honey farmers, co-operatives, local NGOs and the regional administrations in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Sumatra islands and Sumbawa in West NusaTenggara.

Valentinus Heri said that the Apis dorsata honey, which may reach four tonnes at harvest time, has been certified as a national organic product by BioCert. Sole distributor PT Dian Niaga sells a 300 gram bottle of honey for IDR75,000 (€5; US$8). "We focus on selling to the national market, but we have started to receive orders from Japan and Korea,” said

company director Johnny W Utama.

Source: Jakarta Post, 15 April 2008) NWFP-

Digest-L No 4/08

FURTHER READING:

Tingku — a traditional management technique for Apis dorsata binghami in Indonesia. BfD Journal 64 (2002)

Marketing honey and beeswax from Apis dorsata in West Kalimantan BfD Journal 67 (2001)

Traditional honey and wax collection from Apis dorsata in West Kalimantan. BfD Journal 59(2001) These articles are available on the B/D website information centre

MALAWI

Collins Kasimba works for the Small Holders Coffee Farmers Trust at Luwinga near Mzuzu. He organises training courses for local beekeepers. He works as a beekeeping extensionist with 436 farmers who keep bees, and together they harvest over 12 tonnes of honey.

SRI LANKA

Annual honey consumption in Sri Lanka is around 100 tonnes, only half of which is produced on the island. The honey is mostly taken as medicine, and local honey is particularly valued. In Ayurvedic medicine, herb extracts are taken with honey chaser. The honey helps activate the herbs. village Ayurvedic herbalist will sell sachet dose of herbs for LKR10 (€0.06; US$0.09) and 25 il bottle of local honey for LKR45 (€0.27; US$0.42). Imported Australian honey is not valued medicinally. As guide to local values, seamstress in garment factory earns LKR800 (€4.80; US$7.43) day.

Sarath has three children and keeps rubber smallholding in the Ratnapura District. He learned honey gathering from his father. Honey bees return regularly to cavities in the terracing of his plot on the edge of the tropical forest near Adam’s Peak in the central highlands. These bees are Apis cerana, the Asian hive bee. They are about two thirds the size of European races of the western hive bee Apis mellifera and are tropical forest specialists. They can be kept in small hives and produce honey that is much valued as medicine. There is not enough local honey to meet demand and if Jf good quality, 750 ml bottle will sell for LKR800 (€4.80; US$7.43). tasted some of Sarath’s honey; it looked like black treacle and was delicious. Sarath says it is getting harder to gather wild honey and he now keeps more bees in hives around his home.

Dr Wasanatha Punchihewa (pictured right) has spent his life studying tropical invertebrates in Sri Lanka. He is especially keen on bees, of which only few species can be harvested for honey. In ancient times honey was the traditional tribute paid by the forest-living people to the kings in Kandy. Beekeeping is traditional skill handed down from father to son. This has caused shortage of beekeepers and the need to import honey. Sri Lankan nectar is going to waste, unharvested by bees or humans! The wet tropics, with their abundant sun and water, are the most productive lands on earth. An acre of Sri Lankan jungle produces 40 tonnes of biomass year, compared with 15 tonnes from temperate agricultural land, despite all its ‘hi-tech’ inputs. Dr Punchihewa is encouraging farmers to move away from the mono cropping western model for their rice paddy fields and rubber plantations, in favour of inter cropping and crop rotation. He advocates ‘multi storey gardening’ and demonstrates this on his smallholding, where he farms in three dimensions: left, right and upwards. The trees produce nectar and fruit, such as coconut, jack fruit and mango, and cash crops like rubber. single kithul palm, when mature, will produce syrup continuously for two years, and in enough quantity to meet the needs of several families. The mid storey produces spices including cinnamon and pepper, also cash crops like avocado and tea that need shade. The rapidly growing Gliricidia tree can be coppiced for fuel, and is good nectar source. In the rich leaf litter, beans, cardamom, squashes and yams flourish. Hens thrive in their natural forest environment - but the eggs are difficult to find. The bees come and go as the trees flower sporadically through the year. One acre is enough to feed a family of four and to keep a couple of cows. Dr Punchihewa is working with the government to design a simple organic standard, based on counting the number of bees in the canopy and the number of worms in the leaf litter. If those two are in sufficient quantity then you may assume the land is being farmed organically.

There have been several attempts to introduce western honey bees Apis mellifera to Sri Lanka by well meaning development agencies over the past 100 years. Fortunately they have all failed and those Apis mellifera colonies have died out — without bringing harm to the indigenous bees.

Will Clayton, London, UK