Post on 19-Jul-2015
Improved bee forage development as an input to enhance beekeep-ing productivity and income of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), IPMS-ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1. Introduction
2. Intervention approaches and implementation
3. Achievements 3.1 Changes in bee forage availability
4. Lessons learned • Strengthen the skills and experience on basic understanding of the dynamic relationships of nectar flow and honeybee
colony management is essential for profitable beekeeping management. • Beekeeping needs a year round full time follow up and found to be a profitable option for landless youth. • Establishment of learning platforms and experience sharing tour of beekeepers is an easy way to scale out and up
market oriented beekeeping management. • Beekeeping has been a profitable business under extreme rainfall variability and relatively resilient to rainfall induced
stress.
3.2 Understanding on the dynamics of bee forage sources
• Learning and experience sharing platforms established. • Experience have been shared among experiences and less experienced beekeepers. • Special field visits, tours, exhibition and discus-
sions to reflect lessons captured.
3.5 Mechanisms of skill/experience sharing and uptake
3.4 Changes in skills on marketable oriented beekeeping products/bee forage
3.3 Changes in skills on
0
15
30
45
60
75
90
Happy period Transitional period Dry period Frost period
Rainfall distribution (%
)
Period of the year
Beekeeping has been indentified as an important income generating commodity that fits well within the smallholder agricultural development and resource con-servations in Ethiopia. Traditionally, beekeeping has been managed as a sideline activity and its potential as sources of household income has been underutilized largely due to limited skills on the dynamics of nectar flow and its relationship to honeybee colony management. In this regard, various interventions and ap-proaches has been tested and promoted on bee forage development integrated with honeybee colony management to enhance market oriented beekeeping pro-ductivity. The approaches of bee forage interventions, achievements and lessons learned are presented.
Irrigated bee forage development: After intervention
Bottomlands bee for-age development: Be-fore (left) and after intervention (right)
Steep lands bee forage development: Before (left) and after interven-tion (right)
Backyard bee forage develop-ment: After intervention
Increasing nectar flow
Maximumnectar flow
Declining nectar flow
Month
JulyMarch October February
Nectar flow
status
Build up
Maximum
Decline
Month
JulyMarch October February
Hone
ybee
popu
latio
n
Rainfall pattern
Uptake in Atsbi-Womberta district