BY MENGESHA AMARE
The east African nation, Ethiopia, has been undertaking agriculture since long back, and the sector has remained the mainstay of the country’s economy. The sector thus has constituted crop production and animal husbandry. Horticulture, aquaculture, apiculture are also sections cascaded from the umbrella sector.
With an intention of transforming the agriculture sector thereby lifting all Ethiopians from a grip of poverty they find themselves in, the country has been capitalizing on running the agriculture sector. Of the many sections the agrarian division has incorporated, apiculture, as cited earlier is the one around which this piece revolves.
The Ethiopian Herald had a stay with Afendi Refisa, who graduated from Haramaya University and working for a private company consulting aquaculture and apiculture divisions. He is an agriculturalist.
He has provided the paper with a reliable idea about the state of apiculture in the country in general and the way how it is run in some parts of the nation with a scattered manner, of course. Beekeeping has been practiced in Ethiopia since time immemorial and honey was collected from rocks, trees and other conventional sites where bees have found suitable for them.
According to Afendi, beekeeping is a sustainable and high-potential activity for local communities and especially for the rural poor to gain additional income through non-timber forest products, and it does not require much land or high starting costs, maintains biodiversity and increases crop yields.
Ethiopia is one of the top ten honey and beeswax producers in the world, but plays only a minor role in the international honey trade. Unlike large-scale beekeepers using modern techniques found in most leading honey-producing countries, the majority of Ethiopian beekeepers are small-scale producers practicing traditional beekeeping, he added.
As to Afendi, apiculture, a Latin word means bee-keep¬ing is the practice of scientific maintenance of honeybee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans and collection of bee products and marketing them professionally.
He also said that a bee-keeper, also called apiarist, may keep bees in order to collect honey and bees¬wax, or for the purpose of pollinating crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary.
He said, “Not only is the apiculture sector run in a dispersed manner but almost all sectors are undertaken individually, which doesn’t help the nation reap the benefit out of the bee wealth as required.”
As to him, the honey production is particularly rising during spring season lies on the months of September to November. Even the product secured this time is believed to be a remedy for any kind of disorder, though it is legend, a honey harvested in October (Yetkimt Mar), and it is most of the time produced in a very scattered manner, which could hardly help the farming community in particular and the entire nation in general gain the benefit as they deserve.
Thanks to the relentless effort exerted by development agents in various parts of the nation, the farming communities have now been provided with scientific ways of keeping bees, beehives, and environments from which bees can make hones imbibing flowers.
According to Afendi, apart from making a very delicious material, yummy meal type, human beings can draw important lessons from bees, operation and dealing tasks together to be productive and triumphant over every problem they have been encountering in life.
He said, “To the surprise of everyone, Ethiopia lacks nothing, but commitment to capitalize on every sector either due to recklessness or not clearly comprehending the significance of the sub-sectors like aquaculture or apiculture, which looks minor but helps the country reap a rewarding return.”
Yes, the labor divisor the queen, drones and worker bees have been employing since they have reached at the age of engagement has to be a role model for every creature, indeed!, he opined.
Coming back to the state of honey production in the country, he said, “Honestly speaking we all are left with a long journey to trek to harness the potential benefit out of the sub-sector—apiculture.”
The sub-sector requires modern approaches with a view to helping bees come up with much more production. For example, keeping bees in modern hives wood help farmers or other actors running the activity harvest sufficient even beyond honey production. Besides, getting operators organized is of paramount importance in easily securing what is required for a better honey production from the colony.
The other point that has to be seriously taken into account is the environment where bees are kept in particular and other ecological landscape in general should be nurtured and remains green. Such a bold move attracts dual advantages: it has paved viable means for the colonies to fulfill what is needed for confidently preparing honey and making the environment charming and livable thereby helping the society lead a healthy, happy and productive life.
Preparing a place in such a way that prettily enables the colony of bees to comfortably and sustainably make honey and preserving the environment can all the time go together as they are positively correlated, he said.
“Surprisingly, in some circumstances the majority of the population considers agriculture as a sole task of cultivating land using oxen or horses, nurturing crops up to harvesting time.
However, agriculture comprises a range of sub-sectors apart from the aforesaid engagement of cultivating crops and running animal husbandry. It is a wider concept and practical undertaking on which many developing and developed countries’ economies rely on,” he underlined.
Not only the bee colonies are significantly useful in providing the general public peculiarly active operators with honey production but they are also miraculous social insects used for reproduction of flowering plants through the process of pollination, he added.
When we would like to talk about honey production, apiculture, the issue of infrastructure has to be cited and the required apparatus need to be met. Market linkage has to be paved and awareness of farmers about utilization of modern hives and other value added means should be well mastered by them. In so doing, the apiculture sub-sector would help the farming community in particular and the nation in general gains what they respectively deserve.
As availability of roads, electric power, telecommunications and others have remained the life blood of making business and fostering the smooth running of the agriculture sector, successfully making all he required inputs for apiculture plays a pivotal role in making the subsector highly rewarding and appealing one.
“To say something about the way of doing business to make money from honey and fostering market linkage, the honey production found in a scattered way needs to be well amalgamated and run in a coordinated manner up on lucidly orienting the farming community or other interested operators about the invaluable essence of working in collaboration,” he added.
As learnt from Afendi, some of the ear¬liest evidence of gathering honey from wild colonies is from rock paintings, dating back to around 13,000 BC from different countries. Honey bees have not been cultured for honey; instead honey is collected from wild natural hives since the early days.
He further stated that beekeeping has the potential to make a big contribution to the livelihood of poor people and it can generate real income with low levels of labor and capital investment. As bees are used for sources of income, they have contributed to the effort geared towards ensuring food security.
In a nutshell, as Ethiopia is a top honey and beeswax producer mainly for the domestic market and equipment for traditional beekeeping is easily accessible, it should seriously embark on the sub-sector and push it to the next level of advancement via transforming into modern systems applying high quality beekeeping skills.
The Ethiopian Herald March 23/2023
