December 28, 2020

The secret to become a smart and successful honey farmer

Animal Production Related

Ethiopia

South West Ethiopia in general and Bench-Sheko Zone in particular has huge potential for beekeeping. It has very suitable climatic factors and natural resources. There are intact and conserved forests in the zone out of which flows a number of rivers and streams. These forests consist of diversified honeybee plants that serve as food for the bees all year round and for honey production. However, the production system is dominated by the traditional forest beekeeping (98%) that is exercised by the indigenous communities in the region.

In forest beekeeping, only the males travel far from their homes and hang their traditional log hives on very tall (up to 40 meters) to trap swarms of bees and to produce honey. This practice has been causing loss of lives of many beekeepers and also permanent disabilities from falling from such heights during placing hives or honey harvesting.

In addition, farmers are not doing any kind of support and inspection for the bees except travelling to harvest once a year through the brutal way of honey removal. This way of production system doesn’t allow colonies to survive more than one harvesting season and hence hinder the farmers from fully exploiting the potential to harvest up to three times per year. As a result, the average productivity of the traditional log beehives is 8kg crude honey per hive per year.

Majority of the small holder farmers are currently harvesting small quantities from many hives. This is mainly due to the cultural forest beekeeping practice that hinders use of any improved beekeeping technologies, inaccessible to any kind of beekeeping extension services. Therefore, beekeepers lack knowledge and skills of improved beekeeping management techniques that are important to increase productivity and improve the quality of the hive products.

From traditional to improved beekeeping techniques

To reverse the situation, Bench Maji Coffee farmers’ cooperative Union in partnership with 2scale developed a business ambition that aims to transform the traditional men dominated and forest-based honey production system into a modern and backyard-based honey production system through empowering women farmers.

Transforming the existing beekeeping into improved one is not only using improved equipment, but also improved management practices and total shift of thought. Accordingly, Bench Maji Coffee farmers’ cooperative Union and 2scale contracted an apiculturist to provide theoretical and practical training for experts and model farmers.

According to the trainees, getting honey from traditional beehives hanged on the tree was almost about a matter of luck. They did not know that the honeybee’s populations respond to seasonal dynamics. They did not know the behavior of bees in different seasons, how they respond to availability and scarcity of food, diseases and pests. One of the critical take-aways from the training sessions was much focused on knowing the secret to be a smart farmer in honey production.

Understanding the communication of bees

Bees have their own language to communicate with one another in a number of ways such as drumming feet, flapping wings like a dance and the use of pheromones. The dance performed by the scout bees is one way the bees inform each other of the location of food and how far away it is. The round dance is performed by bees that forage less than approximately 100 metres from the hive. Waggle dance is performed to locate food sources beyond 100 metres from the hive. The scout bees also perform a characteristic dance to locate the new found home to which bees intend to swarm.

The pheromone, released by the queen, enables her to identify members of the colony, to inhibit ovary development in worker bees, to prevent the workers from building queen cells, to help a swarm or colony to move as a cohesive unit, and to attract drones during mating flights. The absence of the queen substance (e.g. when the queen dies) produces opposite responses. Colony decisions are taken by the collective behavior of bees within one colony sharing the same odour, allowing guard bees to detect intruders. Thus the trainees have understood the whole biological process inside the hives and the whole “language of bees'' that the beekeeper should know, understand, interpret and use to inform his colony management practices.

A new opportunity for youth

Youth face increasing unemployment challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia in particular. Helping them create their own self-employment and economic empowerment options becomes urgent. 2SCALE in its youth inclusion in agrifood systems agenda looks at addressing skills gaps youth face to respond to needs of agribusiness markets for employment opportunities, competitiveness and inclusiveness of the food production system.

Access to improved bee hives was identified as a challenge Bench Maji Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union faced to increase their honey production and income. Leveraging the extended public extension system was one of the key strategies devised to encourage the adoption of backyard-based honey production by focusing on the youth. Bench Maji Union was able to influence the production by creating awareness of smallholder farmers through training and demonstrations. This in turn influenced more f farmers to join the new system of honey production. As a result, the demand for improved and modern beehives is growing. 2SCALE has therefore identified it as an opportunity for self-employment for youth in Bench Maji Agribusiness partnership in Ethiopia.

24 young men drawn from six districts had managed to attend 2 weeks hands on training in beehives making and basic business management. The training was focused on the safety rules, the design and the specifications of improved and modern beehives,a practical training related to wood selection, machinery operation, and beehives manufacturing.

Other training sessions will follow to further strengthen their capacity to promote youth inclusion in the honey value chain.

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