Breeding Hope: How Climate Smart Beekeeping is transforming rural Uganda
Blog by BfD team
Posted: 17 August 2026
Meet Tom
My name is Tom Kisoboyi, a final year student at Makerere University pursing a Bachelor of Science in agriculture, majoring in animal science. I also serve as a team leader under the student led beekeeping initiative in the Makerere University Bee Club. Additionally, I was binational beekeeping team project leader under the Iowa state university Uganda programme, and a trainer in the ERASMUS + Project-student led honey value chain challenge in Uganda.
What sparked your interest in beekeeping?
As a proud product of the rural landscape, this struggle is deeply personal. I have seen what it means for marginalized, small holder beekeepers in Ugandan families to invest their lifesavings into empty hives. They are forced to gamble their survival on the unpredictable “will of nature.” If wild swarms colonize, the family eats; but if the bees abscond, a lifetime of hard earned savings vanishes overnight. This reality is made exponentially worse today as climate change, erratic weather, and rapid ecosystem loss dry up nectar sources and destroy fragile habitats.
Witnessing these vulnerable smallholders risk everything in a volatile environment triggered our mission to step in where slow moving institutional restoration falls short. We launched a climate smart bee and forage breeding project to actively multiply bee colonies, rear queens, offer pollination service and supply integrated forage that bloom throughout the day to support both bees and smallholder beekeepers. By doing so we are removing the guesswork from the equation and transforming a fragile environmental gamble into a stable, predictable, and secure livelihood for farmers who have the absolute most to lose.
Image above: Students from Makerere University Bee Club
Images: The empty hives and absconded bee colonies
How important is university beekeeping education for the Uganda beekeeping industry?
University beekeeping education acts as a global village. It brings together students, researchers, and professionals to share experiences, knowledge, support, and skills. Furthermore, it drives essential research for the sector. For instance, Department of Animal and Range sciences in the college of agricultural and environmental sciences under Makerere University hosts vital associations like the Makerere University Bee Club. It also collaborates with international institutions through key initiatives:
- The Binational Beekeeping team project: A service-learning programme between students from Iowa state University (USA) and Makerere University under the ISU-UP. It focuses on working alongside smallholder beekeepers in kamuli district to identify the most argent needs and provide sustainable solutions to combat high cases of poverty and malnutrition using bees.
- The ERASMUS + Project: A student led honey value chain challenge with participating students from Malawi University of Science and Technology (Malawi), Bugema University (Uganda), Makerere University (Uganda) and Copenhagen University of Denmark.
- Bees for development in partnership with TUNADO: strategic partnership supporting student led beekeeping initiatives for instance supporting Makerere Bee Club with hives and stands, Youth innovation and opportunities in tropical beekeeping.
Image: showing hive inspection and local hive making with secondary students from Namasagali College under service learning program
Image: showing interaction between students and smallholder beekeepers under the honey value chain challenge
From the conservation perspective, what impact do you believe engaging young people in beekeeping can have?
Engaging young people ensures long term ecosystem preservation. Much like a steadily flowing stream, a continuous influx of young people brings vital new energy, preventing the industry’s generational knowledge from drying up. Furthermore, training the next generation early transforms them in to active environmental mentors. By safeguarding regional biodiversity, they establish a resilient, sustainable beekeeping industry from the ground up.
Tell us an inspiring example from your work in Uganda on the impact of beekeeping education?
For us, this education was the spark that allowed our student led collaborations to transition from classroom theory into immediate community action. Working closely alongside rural small holder beekeepers, we identified key challenges dragging down their livelihoods.
The challenges: Empty hives and low yields.
- Empty hives; hive colonisation rate sat below 45%, leaving farmers with equipment’s but no bees affecting income.
- Queen less and unproductive colonies: Unproductive hives suffered heavily from a lack of healthy queen bees.
- Environmental stress: Busoga sub region is facing deforestation and vegetation clearing for industrial sugarcane farming depleting natural bee forage.
- Failing crops: Without adequate pollination, cash crops like coffee, tangerines, Hass avocado, and macadamia nuts have poor yields in these areas.
Image: showing interaction with visitors from bees for development and representative from Makerere University Bee Club
Image: showing the apiary managed by students under Makerere University Bee Club integrated with different bee forage.
The solution: climate smart bee and forage breeding
As a student led initiative under Makerere University Bee club, we launched our company, Smart Bee Genetics and Forage suppliers. We are linked to the Department of Animal and Range sciences under the College of Agricultural and Environmental sciences at Makerere University. Our enterprise focuses on climate smart bee and forage breeding specifically selecting and multiply bee colonies, queen rearing and bee forage nursery to tackle four critical areas:
- Affordable colonisation: we multiply and supply healthy bee colonies to farmers at highly accessible prices to colonise their empty hives.
- Queen rearing: our team rears high quality queen bees specifically to replace unproductive or missing queens in struggling hives
- Targeted pollination services: we deploy managed hives for both rural and urban farms to boost fruit set and crop yields for valuable cash crops like coffee and citrus.
- All day forage integration: we supply specialised forage plants that bloom at alternating times of day, keeping the bees well fed and active year round.
Become a regular giver through Big Give
Sign up to make a regular donation through the Big Give’s pilot programme. Your regular gift will be doubled for the first three months, allowing your support to go even further while providing Bees for Development with reliable, ongoing income to plan and expand our work.
Why become a regular giver?
- Your first three monthly donations will be doubled.
You’ll provide dependable support that helps us plan for the future. - You’ll invest in the next generation of beekeeping champions, creating lasting benefits for people, pollinators and biodiversity.
- Even a small monthly gift can have a lasting impact over time.
Match Funded Regular Giving will:
£10/month – Helps provide practical learning materials for university students
£20/month – Supports hands-on beekeeping training and field experience
£35/month – Helps equip future beekeeping leaders with the skills to improve livelihoods and biodiversity
£50/month – Provides sustained support that enables universities to continue training the next generation of beekeeping champions.
Make a one-off donation to Bees for Development
Give directly to Bees for Development during the campaign, helping us to train more students with the practical skills and knowledge they need to use beekeeping as a tool for sustainable development.
One off Donation will:
£25 helps a student develop practical beekeeping skills
£50 supports field visits where students learn from experienced beekeepers
£75 helps provide practical training alongside academic study
£100 helps train the next generation of beekeeping leaders who will share their knowledge within their communities
