THE PURPOSE OF THE BEEKEEPING PROJECT

Firstly we URGENTLY need apiary specialists to come over to Kasese to advise and guide the farmers in this community! Can you help? If you know anyone with beekeeping skills please encourage them to get in touch…

CURRENTLY

There are over 400 prospective farmers in the sub-counties of Mahango, Kilembe, Rukoki and Muhokya who are capable of supplying a minimum amount of 2,500 kg (2.5 tonnes) of honey per harvest. LIDEFO is currently working towards improving the local beehives of its members to produce honey in large quantities in order enable an increase in income at the household level. The projected harvest in the next two years is expected to reach 5,000 kilograms (5 tonnes).

LIDEFO management seeks to ensure that all people - especially those with the fewest resources - take up beekeeping and forestry programs due to its ability to be a source of income with minimal labour and capital investment required. Beehives are a suitable and simple solution to poverty – give a poor farmer a hive and he or she will become self-sufficient.

The beekeeping projects we are developing and strengthening have the aim of transforming from subsistence to commercialisation with a focus to increase the quantity and quality of honey. This is achieved by investing in training beekeepers and collection centre staff in the correct methods of honey harvesting from any type of hive, and the optimal post-harvest handling and storage techniques.

There is an environmental protection (tree planting) element in the beekeeping program, which views bees as pollinators that have a key role in maintaining ecosystems including ensuring biodiversity and helping nature to adjust to external threats such as climate change. The main threats to pollinators can be linked to disease, pesticide use, habitat loss and degradation, monocultures and the introduction of exotic species, causing concern to agricultural producers and conservationists.

This project shall contribute to the conservation, sustainable use and management of bees by:

• Developing and implementing tools, methodologies, strategies and best management practices for the conservation and sustainable use pollinators

• Building local community based and district capacities to enable the design, planning and implementation of interventions to mitigate bee population declines, and establish sustainable pollinator management practices

• Promoting the coordination and integration of activities related to the conservation and sustainable use of bees and tree planting to enhance global synergies towards eradication of extreme poverty and hunger

• Establishing marketing linkages for honey and other bee products; focusing on volume as opposed to price per kilogram as a key to increasing total yearly income from an apiary at the community and household level

• Transforming subsistence bee keeping to commercialisation for job creation and the improvement of livelihoods, through increasing access to modern bee hives, post harvesting management skills, honey processing and storage equipment, tools and supplies, and promoting research geared towards community development and ecological preservation for climate change

LIVELIHOOD

LIDEFO promotes income generation activities by providing loans to the disadvantaged women and youth who would like to undertake small businesses. LIDEDO along with its partners is working to raise awareness of beekeeping development initiatives. We have conducted numerous campaigns to ensure the implementation of the beekeeping initiative is sustainable.

The project has attracted over 400 people who are practising subsistence beekeeping without sufficient marketing opportunities, therefore LIDEFO is targeting to educate the farmers and improve farming methods. The Foundation is looking forward to upgrading the approach to commercial beekeeping and honey processing, integrated with bee friendly trees across the Ranges of Mount Rwenzori. This initiative has increased the demand on the meagre resources available; we therefore need financial, material and technical support to achieve our goals.