BEES FOR DEVELOPMENT
Bees/o; Development Journal 90
Bees/orDevelopmen
MODERN HIVES OR MODERN IDEAS?
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Janet Lowore and Nicola Bradbear, Bees for Development Keywords: Africa; African honey bee; beekeeping project; honey; income generation; poverty alleviation
Bees for Development has observed that many beekeeping projects in tropical Africa place emphasis on so-called ‘modern’ hives and yet the results of such projects are often poor: hives are provided but the impact on poverty alleviation is negligible. We have witnessed projects in Ghana, Malawi, The Gambia, Uganda and Zambia, and many other countries, where beneficiaries report no benefit as a result of receiving bee hives. A study undertaken by Lohr (1998) reported that 75% of evaluated beekeeping projects had a low impact.
Cover: Bee expert Dr Irfan Kandemir inspects colonies of Apis mellifera at Mugia, in southeast Turke whee beekeepers take their bees to harvest the special honeydew honey. More on pages 8 and 9.
ISSUE No 90 March 2009 In this
The frequency of failed bee hive projects has led BfD to consider why projects persist in focussing on hive delivery against evidence that this approach rarely brings long lasting or significant benefits. answer invotves three main factors: The *
Poor situation analyses lead planners to believe wrongly that bee hives are the key intervention point for commercialising apiculture;
The types of hives promoted by beekeeping projects are often inappropriate for the context in which they are placed:
Planners and donors favour certain types of projects, especially those that are easy to administer and provide tangible evidence of their support.
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Modern hives or modern ideas?
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Trees Bees Use
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Letters
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New pollinator project...
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Apilrade Africa looks forward
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Volcano causes chaos
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Does beekeeping enhance rural household income in Botswana?
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Poor situation analysis Beekeeping is traditional throughout tropical Africa and is considered a safe, subsistence activity which is low input, low output, low risk, resilient to shocks and ultimately sustainable. However, safe and sustainable does not necessarily fead to wealth creation and poverty reduction. it is strongly believed that farmers should become more commercial.
Throughout Africa
Commercialising the dairy industry is shifting away from traditional breeds and extensive pastoralism towards new breeds and stall feeding. Commercialising agriculture means growing cash crops and investing in technologies like tractors and refrigerated trucks. Many people assume that commercialising beekeeping necessarily calls for change in the technology, and to use ‘modern’ hives. In fact this is incorrect. a
Pine honeydew honey in
News around the World
Turkey. .
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Look Ahead/Learn Ahead
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Notice
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Board...
Bookshelf
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Information Porial
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Bf D Journal
It is possible for subsistence-level beekeepers to become more commercially orientated, although such a transformation is not dependent upon the choice of hive. The basis of commercial — agriculture is enterprise analysis working out the costs of production and ensuring profitability. A local style hive beats a frame hive in any profitability analysis, and there is no evidence proving that frame hive beekeepers in sub-Saharan Africa harvest greater, total volumes of honey than
beekeepers with local-style hives.
Published quarterly by Bees for Development. and distributed to readers in over 130 countries. Editor Nicola Bradbear PhD Co-ordinator Helen Jackson BSc
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This project has spent much time and money in building a bee house and making hives - but there are no bees. The same situation is visible in many countries. Continues on next page
SUPPORT Bees for Development Trust acknowledge: Anglo American Group Foundation; John Lewis Council: Panta Rhea Foundation; Rowse Family Trust; Synchronicity Foundation; E H Thorne (Beehives) Ltd: VITA (Europe) Ltd; Wales for Africa Fund of the Welsh Assembly Government: The Waterloo Foundation; and the many beekeeping groups and individuals who support our work. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to help. We promise to use all financial contributions wisely and effectively to help alleviate poverty and preserve biodiversity, by means of bees and beekeeping.
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