Research

Tobago, West Indies

Building the capacity of African honey producer organisations to meet EU import criteria

This was a 30-month DFID-funded project under the Business Link Challenge Fund, concerned with enabling African honey to meet EU import requirements. The Project was initiated and managed by Bees for Development and ran from September 2003 to March 2006.

Sustainable Beekeeping for Africa

In 1998 a six year, DFID-funded research project, 'Sustainable Beekeeping for Africa', was concluded. The project was implemented by our partners at Njiro Wildlife Research Centre in Tanzania.

Project Purpose

"Sustainable Beekeeping for Africa" developed tested and reliable information on how to make simple hives and manage tropical African honeybees. This will enable more people to benefit from beekeeping as a useful source of food and incomes, derived from honey, beeswax and ensured crop pollination.

Project achievements

Our findings were disseminated through workshops and training courses, and were published in our journals Bees for Development Journal and Apiculture & Développement. In this way, the results from the project are helping poor beekeepers world wide to practise more worthwhile beekeeping.

Examples of research, from over 40 topics, include:

Development of a minimum management strategy of beekeeping for African honeybees

Testing of the optimal design of top-bar hives

A study of factors preventing women from becoming beekeepers in Monduli District (Maasai women)

Development of the optimal design of top-bar hive

Economic Comparison of low-technology hives and frame hives in Tobago

In 2002, we commenced a Caribbean Research and Training Fund-sponsored research project in partnership with Tobago Apiculture Society. The purpose of the project is to establish whether locally-made hives can be economically viable. The rationale behind the project is that the Trinidad & Tobago apiculture industry is highly dependent upon heavily-subsidised imports, a situation that may not be sustained in the long-term.

An apiary belonging to a member of the Tobago Apiculture Society: comparison between locally-made top-bar hives and frame hives is underway

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