'The sky's the limit'

I never planned to study entomology or be a beekeeper. Actually I
enrolled in the school of Biological Sciences hoping to be a medical
doctor.

Some days after the Asian tsunami in 2004, I was intrigued
by a scientific publication that suggested that animals, particularly
insects were sensitive enough to leave days before the catastrophe. This
is how I became interested in entomology and wildlife and found out
insects are the most successful of all living beings.

Discovering the Apiculture world

By
that time, the labour market was choked up. I started thinking about
possible business markets I could get involved in. Out of all the insect
families the most popular one are the beetles (Coleopterans), which is
of great economic importance to agriculture. However, as I did not see
much of an entrepreneurial future in this sector for Africa, I thought
instead about bees (Hymenopterans) and began to specialise in entomology
and wildlife at my third year of undergraduate study.

When I
finished my undergraduate studies, I applied for the voluntary national
service for graduates of higher institutions of learning in Nigeria.
Thankfully, I realised soon enough that keeping bees during my service
year wasn’t the right choice due to the violent people that I met there,
so after my service year I managed to set up an apiary while engaging
myself in other side jobs to survive.

My first apiary had a capacity to carry 33 hives. The picture below was just before it was finished.

The
location was very suitable as it was rich in water source (a little
stream), density  and diversity of angiosperms both in and out of
season. It was located in the dense vegetative area called Galadimawa,
which is in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Overcoming vandalism

This
could have served for training and capacity building purposes. It could
have also helped carry out environmental health studies in that area
for the city of Abuja. Unfortunately, when the time for harvest came,
thieves took away all the harvestable honey and destroyed the
infrastructure.

I had to pick up the left overs, relocate the
hives into a fenced farm and built a 60 hive capacity apiary. I designed
this apiary also for training purposes among others. A picture of when
it was under construction is shown below.



Yet
vandalism has not stopped; it is better now as I have employed someone
to look after the apiary. Likewise, farmers who are in the surroundings
help protect my apiary as they see the yield of their crops has improved
thanks to its proximity.

Training women farmers in bee-keeping

I am currently training farmers under a USAID
MARKETS 2 project. We are training in five states of Nigeria and it is
of great joy empowering farmers. We have seen the impact of pollination
intervention in strawberry farms in Platue state, pepper farms in Kaduna
state and soya beans in Benue state. Besides, we have been able to
provide a market for beekeepers and people from Kasiri in Kaduna state
now have takers available for all their products.

In the past,
women did not have buyers. During our Farmer Interest Analysis for the
Chikum and Kajuru women of Kaduna state we were informed that after
harvesting the honey women only took the little they needed and poured
the rest into the river as they could not carry the dense liquid home.
They also burnt the bees so that these wouldn’t disturb them when they
were working in their farms. Thanks to our project, now they know
better.

Moreover, farmers in Ondo and Cross river states in
Southern Nigeria are willing to slow down the use of insecticides and
practice traditional methods that discourage pests and promote effective
pollination.

Expanding the business

Despite all the
obstacles, I believe agriculture’s future is brighter than ever. I was
recently at a mega store to attend a suppliers’ meeting for a honey
packaging company I am consultant at and I was very elated with the
increase of locally manufactured honey demand.

Recently,  an
economist on another forum made a conservative estimate of what the
beekeeping industry is worth in Nigeria and concluded on about three
billion naira yearly (around 15 million USD). Considering this number
only included honey, bee bread (pollen), propolis and commercial
pollination and not bee venom or royal jelly. It is very promising.

Despite
the several challenges, I won’t give up. I hope not only to raise
enough capital to set up a minimum of 300 - 1,000 hives in several
apiaries in Nigeria and Ghana, but also to train farmers on bee-keeping
to learn to practise apitherapy. The household nutrition dimension of
bee products brought home is overwhelming. The sky is the limit.