Most people in rural parts of Ethiopia never knew there were so many bees around their house that can work for them. Only few can really see the courage to meet their basic needs and make easy money for housing, paying children’s educational expenses, and doing small businesses.
Currently, beekeeping is an integral part of the smallholder farming system in the Amhara State and it plays a significant role as source of additional cash income and nutrition for many subsistence farmers. Although thousands of tons of honey are produced every year, the local market is being taken by imported ones; because the production is usually seen as poorly managed and unattractive in appearance.
In fact, the type of hives used, and the methods of removing and storage of honey have pivotal role in increasing the quality of honey. To fill the gap in this regard, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, has been supporting 12,500 youths who want to be engaged in beekeeping and silkworm farming under the YESH (Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey) project since 2016.
Icipe Director General & CEO, Dr. Segenet Kelemu says the project will now help to ensure food security, promote more tree-planting, and encourage agro-forestry programs to flourish. Dr. Segenet explained that bees require flowering trees and vegetation from which they can secure high-quality pollen and nectar all year round. This means that young Ethiopian beekeepers will have to conserve and plant more trees to maximize honey productivity and increase sources of revenue, she added.
Cognizant of the fact, icipe, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Ethiopia Jobs Creation Commission (JCC), has recently launched a 55 million USD five-year initiative to benefit 100,000 young men and women in Ethiopia from honey and silk value chains.
In the official statement sent yesterday to The Ethiopian Herald that the MOre Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey (MOYESH) project is aligned to ongoing efforts to alleviate youth unemployment or underemployment in Ethiopia and will be implemented primarily in partnership with Ethiopia Jobs Creation Commission (JCC) and the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works in Ethiopia initiative.
“MOYESH is also positioned within icipe’s vision of science-led strategies towards holistic and inclusive socio-economic transformation across Africa. The project will capitalize on icipe’s extensive experience over the past 50 years in collaboration with national and international partners, which has generated extensive knowledge and built capacity for modern beekeeping and sericulture leading to the development and marketing of innovative high-quality products,” the statement emphasized.
Additionally, icipe research encompasses the often overlooked, but vital role of bees in boosting agricultural productivity through pollination of crop and wild plants and the provision of essential ecosystem services.
According to the statement, Reeta Roy, President and CEO of Mastercard Foundation, says that youths are a thriving part of the economy. By creating opportunities in beekeeping and silkworm farming, thousands of young Ethiopian women and men will start on the path to becoming successful entrepreneurs and contribute to their country’s continued economic growth.
“Having grown up in rural Ethiopia, I am fully aware of the transformative potential of agriculture as well as the reality of young people as an untapped resource,” added Segenet, “icipe is delighted to use the Centre’s immense research for development and science translation capacity to bring these two forces together for opportunities in Ethiopia, and indeed across Africa.”
The statement also explained that the MOYESH initiative will build on significant progress made through the Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey (YESH) project, implemented in Ethiopia by icipe and Mastercard Foundation between 2016 and 2019. The YESH project spawned jobs for 12,500 young men and women in the country through honey and silk enterprises.
The initiative also established functional marketplaces for honey and beeswax, and served as a platform for icipe to lead the development of a National Sericulture Development Strategy, at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
“The YESH project has already transformed the livelihoods of thousands of unemployed youth by generating decent jobs and income through beekeeping and silk production businesses. The ability to expand this program into more regions, through Young Africa Works in Ethiopia, holds significant potential for the young people, and other value chain actors in Ethiopia,” noted Alemayehu Konde Koira, Country Head, at the Mastercard Foundation.
As to him, MOYESH will be implemented across the country in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples regions, with the goal of scaling up technologies and good practices to other areas. The project will have the following key thrusts that will integrate beekeeping and sericulture enterprises around protected forest, and community-based watersheds. It will also enable young people to access financial, markets and information services.
Moreover, the project aimed at building and strengthening the technical, entrepreneurship, soft, and financial literacy skills of the youth, partners and local institutions; as well as establishing strong private-public partnerships.
In this regard, icipe, the Mastercard Foundation and Ethiopia’s Jobs Creation Commission have been playing significant role in strengthening youths’ engagement in dignified and fulfillment job opportunities at home.
In sum, beekeeping has many advantages that help farmer beekeepers in Amhara State to improve their well-being and curb socio-economic problems. As a case in point, successful beekeepers Wude Ayimro, Adamu, Getahun and their friends, can substantially supplement their family income, and raise their socio-economic standing in areas with subsistence agriculture in East Gojjam Zone of Amhara State.
Currently, the major source of revenue for these youths is honey processing in modern beehives. In so doing, many could currently transform their livelihood from gloomy to a brighter one. Thus, the five-year initiative, launched by icipe and MasterCard Foundation, will surely help hundred thousands of young men and women in Ethiopia to benefit from honey and silk value chains.
The Ethiopian Herald November2, 2019
BY ZELALEM GIRMA
