Commercial Beekeeping
Background
The project aims to tackle rural poverty in Kenya by introducing small-scale and subsistence farmers to commercial beekeeping through a network of partners. The partners provide training for new beekeepers and access to equipment, through an innovative leasing scheme. The purchasing and marketing of the honey is undertaken by a private sector company, Honey Care, which buys the honey at a fair, fixed price. This is a sustainable, low cost, low risk opportunity for significant numbers of marginalised people to earn income without excessive investments of work, time or land.
Main Activities
- Developing the capacity of 4 partner organisations to encourage and inform potential new entrants of the benefits of commercial beekeeping and provide on-going training to a certified standard at regional demonstration and training centres.
- Linking all new beekeepers to Honey Care, which guarantees a market for their produce at a fixed and fair price and is promoting growth in the domestic market for honey.
- Institutionalising a financially sustainable Hive Leasing Scheme, where subsistence farmers can obtain Langstroth bee hives and pay for them slowly through the production and sale of honey. Repayments enable more hives to be purchased and leased to other farmers interested in the scheme.
- Working towards the certification of Kenyan honey produced by the project to European import standards and raise producer awareness of these standards.
Achievements to date
- Over 17,000 people have been introduced to beekeeping as a potential new farming business.
- 1,529 hives have been leased to 733 farmers, 40% of whom are women.
- 17 metric tones of honey have been harvested, translating into approximately £13,076.92.
- 5 colleges have incorporated practical beekeeping courses and demonstrations into their training curricula. The colleges also make and sell bee suits, smokers and hive tools. To date the colleges have trained an additional 680 farmers and students.
- Africa Now has trained 1,750 beekeepers to offer support services for a small fee to a wide network of farmers and community groups, thus generating further income.
- Support services are now provided by Africa Now, trained government workers, Honey Care staff and extension workers from partner organisations.
- 2 local honey collection points and extraction centers were set up to improve accessibility for farmers.
- All new beekeepers are selling their honey at a fair price to Honey Care at 5 regular intervals throughout the year.
Case Study
Joel Akaki lives in the Vihiga district in Western Kenya and has four children. Joel, who is disabled, has had problems finding employment. He works on his small farm to support his children, while his wife works at home as a dressmaker. Both Joel and his wife have to work extremely hard to pay for their children's education. This has proved difficult and they have been forced to look for other ways to supplement their income.
In 2001, Honey Care Africa, in partnership with Africa Now, invited the local community to attend a practical beekeeping demonstration. Although Joel already had an apiary on his farm, he found it very difficult to extract honey. Immediately after the demonstration, Joel booked an appointment with Africa Now to find out when training would commence.
Since his training with Africa Now, Joel has bought six hives which he is able to manage despite his disability. The hives are flourishing and Joel has already completed his first harvest. Furthermore, Joel is able to sell his honey at fair trade prices thanks to Africa Now's link to Honey Care. Now Joel is planning to buy more hives to boost his income. He explains that beekeeping takes very little of his time and that it is an inexpensive pursuit. Within the local community, Joel is admired for his industriousness.
