Farmers in West Mamprusi Trained on Beekeeping

It is empirical to state that, no matter the required amounts of rainfall and sunshine that nature brings coupled with the exact quantity of farm inputs used in any traditional system of cereals cultivation, if the appropriate plant pollination does not take place as expected, the farmer would most likely harvest nothing by the end of the farming season.

 

Studies elsewhere have shown that, a greater percentage of pollination is carried out by bees, indicating that without these insects farming of crops that flower during their gestation periods would have been considered nonprofit making ventures by many farmers. 

In the United States of America for instance, the apis mellifera – better known as the Western honeybee, adds more than US$15billion in value to farming each year. From the almond orchards of central California – where each spring billions of honeybees from across the U.S.A arrive to pollinate a multibillion dollar crop, to the blueberry bogs of Maine, the bees are regarded the unsung and unpaid labourers of the American agricultural system due to their significant contributions.

In view of how significant bees are to farming, many Americans have thus ventured into beekeeping as a business due to the death of colony of bees in recent times in many parts of USA, leading to high demand for the insects by farmers to help boost pollination in their farming activities. 

Here in Ghana, about eighty farmers in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region are also being introduced to the practice of beekeeping for crop pollination in addition to the economic advantage they get in the form of income through the sale of honey and honey products.

Beekeeping is one livelihood venture which when started could continuously give the communities income and food at least twice in a year. Its potential as a business is yet to be realized especially by groups wishing to start up small-scale business.

According to experts, honey continues to command good prices both in the domestic and international markets. There is a market for beeswax and beekeepers could also trade in bees themselves. 

The initiative by the West Mamprusi District Assembly through the support of German-based organisation, Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, intends to promote sustainable land management activities which will enhance thick forest growth, preserve breeding grounds of various plant and animal species, and provide buffers for changing habitats in the Mishio and Zua communities.

It will also provide incentives for vulnerable community members to adapt to climate change through the introduction of apiary (beekeeping) development concept. Through series of technical training/education and provision of beekeeping equipment to selected farmers, the activity will create the enabling environment for conservation and development to happen concurrently.

honey processed forsale

The Project Coordinator Issifu Sulemana Jobila told Savannahnews, in order to protect trees and sustain the gains made under the project, it is important that, better rural technology and options are introduced to pay for such environmental services, hence the introduction of apiary concept. 

The introduction of bee-keeping, he said, will complement and speed up the growth rate of the natural regenerated vegetation through pollination, diversify rural economy from charcoal production thus reducing poor rural women overdependence on the natural vegetation, boost their nutritional needs progressively and provide large scale of economic income. 

In 2011, the West Mamprusi District Assembly was awarded a grant of GH¢80,000.00 by Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, a German-based non-governmental organisation to undertake a nine-month project dubbed “Fighting Climate Change Through Reforestation”.

The project which is currently phasing out has the overall goal of increasing tree population in order to effectively combat desertification and land degradation in the West Mamprusi District as well as contribute to ongoing global efforts in the fight against climate change. 

The project also seeks to create awareness, support community members with alternative livelihood occupations and further strengthen civil society capacity to take up their own initiatives in the fight against climate change. 

Fighting climate change is a key objective outlined in the Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) of the West Mamprusi District Assembly. Thus, the Assembly identified two communities namely; Zua and Mishio as areas for the implementation of the project. 

The Zua and Mishio communities which are located along the White Volta River are prone to climate change variability and its associated risks. They are also seriously experiencing desertification due to intensive farming activities carried out all year round along the river banks.