News around the World

CAMEROON

In June a two-day workshop ‘Stock-taking and projecting the honey value chain into the future in West and Central Africa’, organised by the SNV West and Central African Forestry Knowledge Network as part of an FAO-NTFP project, was held in Foumban in the West Region. Delegates from seven African countries had the opportunity to share knowledge and gain a broader understanding of honey trade across the region. Twenty-two presentations on the themes of production and hive products; processing, promotion and commercialisation; networking and partnership development; and enabling environmental and climate change, were followed by group working sessions. The key note presentation by Verina Ingram from CIFOR discussed the impact of beekeeping on livelihoods and conservation, with case studies from Cameroon, DR Congo and Zambia. SNV staff presented country overviews for these countries and Ghana, where they have been directly involved in the development and promotion of the honey value chain. The Proceedings will be available on the the SNV website www.snwworld.org and Bf D website shortly.

Delegates at the Workshop on Stock-taking and projecting the honey value chain into the future in West and Central Africa

PHOTO © JULIET WRIGHT

Juliet Wright

INDIA AND NEPAL

Bihar State in eastern India is witnessing a sharp fall in honey production. A decline in the number of honey bees is the factor attributed to this. According to the environmental organisation Taru Mitra, honey bees are fast disappearing from many parts of Bihar and also Nepal. The honey output from a beekeeping co-operative in Vaishali District has gone down sharply, as the number of occupied hives fell from 100 to less than 20. K R High School in Bettiash, West Champaran, now has only one hive out of 25 occupied by bees. An identical problem has been reported in neighbouring Nepal, where beekeeping organisations are on the verge of closure.

Robert Athickal, National Co-ordinator of Taru Mitra believes that two factors are responsible for the bees’ decline: monocultural agriculture and the wide scale use of pesticides on fruit trees. He said that overemphasis on planting a single variety of trees denies regular supplies of food to honey bees as the single variety has a fixed flowering period. Farmers grow these trees specifically for market demand. This deprives honey bees of food and they are at starvation level for a major part of the year. Fewer numbers of honey bees will adversely affect the pollination process which is essential for fruit yields. Athickal appealed to farmers to adopt polyculture to provide honey bees with food all the year round. He said there is a need to make people aware of the long-term impact of the overuse of pesticides.

Source: bihartimes.com

KENYA

The 1st Care Giver Workshop on sustainable beekeeping was held at Arnesens Primary School and showed the commitment of Chrisbee Enterprises to promote the conservation and use of bees. Topics covered in the workshop included honey harvesting and marketing. One of Chrisbee Enterprise objectives is to ensure that producers receive a fair share for their hard work and investment. It is also our objective to ensure that there is a sound marketing system, to ensure that products find their way to the best markets. The beekeeping programmes and the workshop are supported by Neighbours in Action. Extra income from beekeeping helps in financing better health care and education and in improved nutrition.

Christopher Saboi, Chrisbee Enterprises, Eldoret

NIGERIA

PHOTO © IDRIS BARAU

The Beekeeping Extension Society has received further funding of €19,965 (USD25,700) for beekeeping projects in Kaduna State in Nigeria. The funds are from the French Embassy Social Development Fund. The grant is for production of 450 top-bar hives for 450 beekeepers in 21 locations in Kaduna State. About 20% of beneficiaries are rural women.

Idris Barau, Beekeeping Extension Society, Shika

TAJIKISTAN

In 1992 the number of bee hives in Tajikistan was recorded at 250,000. By 2006 this figure had fallen by 81% to 49,600. In the same year a beekeeping programme was implemented to increase the number of hives to 218,000 by 2010. At the beginning of 2010 the estimated figure was 140,000 hives with the annual honey production projected at 3,000 tonnes. Muzaffar Khalimov, Director of Asali Tochik (Tajik Honey) says that small quantities of honey from Tajikistan are exported to Afghanistan, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. By 2011 it is hoped to include Japan in the export market, and to extend the beekeeping programme until 2018.

Rakhim Nazarov, The Times of Central Asia