Honey production in Ethiopia: An integral part of ‘Yelemat Tirufat’

‘Yelemat Tirufat’ (the Bounty of Basket) initiative, spearheaded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, is not only meeting but exceeding its targets, delivering results ahead of schedule, according to FBC.

This success is significantly alleviating community challenges by enhancing agricultural productivity and stabilizing market conditions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

‘Bounty of the Basket’ is a national government program being implemented to improve dairy, poultry, egg, honey, fish and meat production aimed at boosting productivity and production as well as intensifying efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency and ensure nutritional opulence at the family and national levels.

Ethiopia’s annual honey production is estimated to be around 45,000 metric tons. However, the country’s potential is estimated to be as high as 500,000 tons and 50,000 tons of beeswax per year. Most of Ethiopia’s honey is produced using traditional beehives, which are typically less productive than modern hives.

The Ethiopian Government has identified the sector as offering growth potential, including targeting the export sector as a foreign exchange earning source, one generating additional off-farm income for small-scale farmers and leading to poverty alleviation in rural areas. The sector is also seen as offering potential for job creation in rural and urban areas and has encouraged, apart from beekeeping itself, the production of beekeeping equipment and beehives amongst jobless urban and landless youth.

The practice is one of the major integral components of the agricultural economy of the country as it has directly and indirectly contributed to its economy. The traditional beekeeping is the major and oldest type of beekeeping practiced in Ethiopia, too.

Keeping this fact in mind, The Ethiopian Herald had a stay with Muhammed Ahmed, an agriculturalist graduated from Hawassa University, to seek a piece of information about the comprehensive feature of apiculture.

He said, “Beekeeping is a long-standing practice in the rural communities of Ethiopia and appears as ancient history of the country. Its direct contributions are collection of the honey and hive products such as bees wax, and bee colonies whereas its indirect contributions are increase in crop production and conservation of the natural environment through pollination.

Traditional beekeeping is practiced by traditionally constructed hives which are mostly cylindrical in shape and single chamber fixed comb. This type of hive can be made from wood, mud/clay. It has no internal structures; frames were provided for the bees; the bees created their own honeycomb within the hives.

There are enormous opportunities to boost the production of honey in the villages. Thus, introducing modern beehives, limiting the use of pesticides in honey production and awareness creation and assistance to empower women in the beekeeping activity are needed interventions, he added.

Of all the countries in the world, no country has such a long tradition of beekeeping than Ethiopia. Despite its long history, beekeeping in Ethiopia is still an undeveloped sector of agriculture. Besides, knowledge and skill of honey and beeswax production of Ethiopian farmers is still very traditional. Most of local beehives are hanged over high trees.

It is recurrently stated that Amhara, Oromia, Southern regions of Ethiopia and Tigray have been known for their honey and beeswax production, he added.

However, the country is suffering from the ecological degradation of its natural resources and this means the basis for any honey production is threatened and deteriorated in many places. In many regions of the country, beekeeping is considered as one of the income generating activities for resource-poor farmers including women, youth and the unemployed sectors of the community.

Yes, he said, though development is observed regarding the sub sector, Ethiopia still faces a number of challenges in beekeeping like poor harvesting practices, honey bee diseases, bee pests and predators, lack of a well-trained workforce, high cost and limited availability of modern beekeeping equipment, inappropriate use of pesticides, among others.

All concerned have to overcome these problems and an environmentally friendly and non-farm business activity undertaken by farmers and landless people has to be well reinvigorated. In Ethiopia, bee keeping offers environmentally beneficial activity that can help the developing countries in alleviation of poverty and maintaining natural biodiversity. It has also been contributing to rural households’ income and adding to national economy. It plays a great role directly by providing valuable output such as honey, beeswax, queen and bee colonies.

He said, “It is repeatedly stated that Ethiopia stands ninth in the world and first in the Africa in honey production though the production is minimal these days. Beekeeping activity has important contribution economically and ecologically. This sub sector has remarkable potential to contribute to employment generation, local and global market, livelihood improvement, and biodiversity conservation and helps ensuring economic advantages of women, youths and Ethiopia’s geographical position poor households. Development of the Beekeeping practices could significantly enhance crop production, food security, maintenance of plant diversity and ecosystem stability.”

As to Muhammad, honey production is one of the direct contributions of beekeeping practices. In terms of economic contribution and exports commodities, honey is one of the marketed livestock products of Ethiopia. As a result, there is an increased demand for honey production.

In general, the potential areas for honey production in the country include Southwestern, Western and Northwestern parts of the country. These are grouped into high, medium and low potential areas.

Ethiopian honey differs in terms of color, taste, quality and quantity, and it is produced in almost all parts of Ethiopia, with distinctive types of honey coming from different regions mainly due to the type of bee forage available in the regions.

The honey belt zones of Western and Southern parts of Ethiopia produce the largest quantity of honey. There are abundant apicultural resources, particularly in the South Western and South Eastern zones of the country including zones like Jima, Illu Ababor, Bale, West Wellega, Keffa, Bench Maji, Sidama region and Gedeo zones.

In Ethiopia, high portion of honey is sold for income generation. The domestic honey market starts at the smallholder bee keeper’s level, who majorly sells crude honey to collectors in the nearest town/village markets.

“Beekeeping products play significant role in the development of national economy. Ethiopia exports honey to the countries such as Sudan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, UK, Yemen, Japan and USA. Beekeeping plays significant role in supplementing the annual income. Honey production and value addition to its products are vital factors in sustainability of livelihood of poor people,” he said.

Beekeeping practices create job opportunities for landless men and women for their livelihood as it needs low capital to start. Beekeeping is a non-destructive activity that could be employed in the conservation of biodiversity. Bees provide numerous benefits in maintaining sustainable natural environment. These are needed for the pollination of many cultivated crops and maintaining biodiversity. More plantations for supplying pollen and nectar need to be encouraged.

Following the existence of diverse flowering plants, Ethiopia has a potential in beekeeping because of growing of different vegetation and crops which are a good source of nectar and pollen for honey bees in the country. Large and diverse botanical resources combined with suitable climatic conditions make it conducive for the beekeeping business.

As to him, demands of bee products are enormously increasing from time to time at an alarming rate. The healthy condition of bees and production of organic honey are the basically high in demand. Low level of pesticide applications creates opportunity for organic beekeeping development. Honeybee colonies abandoned and migrated from their hives at any season of the year for different reasons.

The destruction of broods while harvesting the honey has made regeneration of bee population slow down. Eventually, it ends up with the declining of the colony. This is common in traditional hive where every comb is used for both laying egg by the queen and honey/pollen storage by the workers.

Generally, beekeeping is an old agricultural practice in Ethiopia. About one million households are involved in honeybee’s business. It is promising off-farm enterprise, which contributes to country’s economy. Besides, there is a need of intervention in introducing modern beehives that can make households produce more for market than home consumption.

Awareness creation and assistance is needed to empower women in the beekeeping activity. Introducing the modern beehives in the nation is needed to supplement the household’s income sources from beekeeping.

In sum, so as to well address the major problems seriously affecting bee production like poor honey harvesting, diseases, pests, predators, poisonous plants, agrochemicals and deforestation, the concerned government authority and beekeepers should be made aware regarding proper harvesting method which avoid destruction of the colony and absconding.

Besides, beekeepers need to be encouraged to plant more trees and make them aware about devastating effects of deforestation. Beekeepers should also be made aware about the harmful effects of honeybee predators, bee diseases, use of agrochemicals, and should be in a position to device possible solutions to the problems to help the nation gain the benefit it deserves out of the sub sector.