News

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The Government of the Central African Republic, the Peace Corps and the US Agency for International Development have been organising an apiculture development project since 1983. The aim of the project is to increase small farmer production of honey and beeswax, and the project now produces its own Newsletter to further promote beekeeping: Bulletin Apicole de la Republique CentrAfricaine, or BARCA. This is a trimonthly Newsletter for Central African Beekeeping Extension Agents and for others involved with CAR beekeeping and rural development. BARCA contains technical articles, beekeeping folktales, word games and distractions. The purpose of BARCA is continued training of the readers and exchange of information between beekeeping experts and extension agents.

(Kathleen De Bold)

CENTRAL AMERICA

The Inter-American Development Bank has awarded $1-34 million from the Social Progress Trust Fund to help carry out a program to manage and control Africanized honeybees in Central America, Mexico and Panama. The program, which will be carried out by the Regional International Organization of Plant Protection and Animal Health will consist of an interrelated series of training and information activities designed to maintain production and productivity of the apiculture sector, as well as to help prevent any threat to human health from the bees. The total cost of the project is estimated at $2 580 000.

(IDB News, Volume 13, Number 1)

EGYPT

During the last ten years the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) has distributed 12 000 hives to the provinces of Minia and Assiut. The aim of CEOSS is to increase the income of village farmers living at subsistence level: CEOSS estimate that a farmer receives as much income from seven modern hives as could be attained from another acre of land. Under the CEOSS system, farmers are trained to work together with their families on beekeeping. Farmers are each provided with seven hives containing bees. The farmer is asked to pay 40% of the cost of these, and the remaining 60% is paid back over the next three seasons. Payment can be with money, honey or bees.

(Amir El-taweel)

GHANA

The inhabitants of Etsli-Beidu, a Fanti Village on the seacoast in the Central Region’s Ekumfi_ District, have long practiced a type of beekeeping. The bees are housed in clay pots, which are modelled by the old women of the village. The handling of the bees, however, is a man’s activity. Some villagers have as many as fifty “bee-pots”’.

A small hole is left at the midsection of the pot which the bees use as their entry and exit point. The villagers do not feel it is necessary to bait their pots as the bees willingly colonize them without inducement. The pot is usually installed by turning it upside-down, placing the wide mouth on the ground.

Honey harvesting presents little difficulty as the villagers utilize a certain vine, known locally as “‘bekyem’’, to subdue the bees. To prepare the vine for use, a twelve-inch length of it is cut and then beaten with a club. Next, the spongy material is forced into the pot selected for harvest. The pulp is then removed from the pot after about seven minutes. The bees remain inside quite docilely; some are even temporarily motionless. Without harassment, the combs can be quickly harvested to finish the operation. After a short time, the bees revive and resume their normal duties without ill-effect.

The Apiculture Promotion Unit sincerely thanks Mr Oddoye of Accra and Mr Ekem of Winneba who assisted Mr Adjare in documenting this interesting practice. If this plant is indeed as effective in controlling the bees as the villagers’ experience Suggests, then its widespread use could prove revolutionary to beekeeping in Ghana. The Technology Consultancy Centre will take all available measures to investigate further this vine’s promising apicultural potential.

(Ghana Bee News, March 1985)

HONDURAS

The Africanized bee is moving very rapidly in Honduras. It is likely to be moving into areas from many fronts now as it is all along the border with E] Salvador and much of the Nicaraguan border. It appears to be hugging the valleys and skirting along the mountains according to their different flowering periods.

(Mark Coleman, Project Director, Centro de Tecnologia Apicola)

INDIA

Nagrota Bagwan Bee Research Station was established in 1936 with the aim of popularizing beekeeping among rural people. Up until this time there was virtually no beekeeping in the states of Punjab and Haryana. A number of attempts were made to introduce and establish Apis mellifera, but there was no success until 1962 when Atwaland Sharma introduced a strain of A. mellifera which was well suited to the climate. Colonies were multiplied and supplied to beekeepers so that now there are over 50 000 colonies of A. mellifera in Northern India. The yield from A. mellifera kept in the hills is about 15-20 kg but in the plains this can increase to 40-45 kg per colony per year. There are about 4000 beekeepers, each managing 10-20 colonies. The Bee Research Station carries out research into bee diseases such as Acarapis woodi and Tropilaelaps clareae, and develops standardized management practises. 30-40 people are trained in beekeeping each year, working with the station’s 200 colonies of A. mellifera.

(Dr Rajesh Garg, Nagrota Bagwan Bee Research Station, Himachal Pradesh, India.)

MAURITIUS

A successful beekeepers association has been established, the Organisation of Mauritian Beekeepers. Recently the Organisation has published a Guide to Apiculture in addition to an annual Newsletter. The Organisation (motto Cooperation, Abundance, Sharing) is very active in organising demonstrations and trying to encourage villagers to take up beekeeping. A campaign has been launched to encourage the propagation of melliferous plants throughout the island.

PAKISTAN

In October 1985 a Beekeeping Society was formed in Karachi with the promise of government help and guidance from apicultural experts of the Agricultural Department. 300 packages of Apis mellifera are to be imported from Australia and distributed amongst local beekeepers.

(Mr Yunus Dada, Karachi.)

THAILAND

In January 1986 a two day “Consultation of Beekeeping Development on Apis cerana’” was held in Phuket, Thailand. The meeting was organized by the Department of Agricultural Extension in Thailand and given backing by the International Development Research Centre of Canada. Attending the meeting were 25 Thai officials and academics who are concerned with the development of beekeeping in Thailand, as well as experts from IDRC beekeeping projects in Malaysia and Sri Lanka. The meeting was most valuable in providing an opportunity for sharing and exchange of information among the Thai research and extension workers. The first day of the meeting was devoted to a presentation by academics of current research activities on A. cerana and A. dorsata. On the second day participants took part in a field trip and discussion on the establishment of Thailand’s National Bee Development Committee. The meeting highlighted the potential of A. cerana in Southern Thailand, and the need for different strategies of research and development for A. cerana and A. mellifera.