Beekeeping can generate income for small-scale entrepreneurs

The increased commercial value of honey and the growing need for pollination are resulting in bees becoming an important income generator and means to ensure food security for small-scale beekeepers.

This was according to Elize Lundall-Magnuson, programme manager of the bee-keeping programme at the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) Plant Health and Protection Institute in Pretoria.

The ARC, in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD), embarked on a two-year project, which started in April this year, to develop black beekeeper entrepreneurs in Gauteng.

Information about the project was presented during a session at the 9th Oppenheimer-De Beers Group Research Conference, held in Johannesburg recently. Lundall-Magnuson said that in the past there were enough wild bees to ensure the pollination of crops without farmers even noticing.

However, this situation had changed dramatically due to agricultural, industrial and urban development, resulting in much of the wild habitat of bees being lost for ever, she added.

“The entrepreneurial development of beekeepers in Gauteng seeks to increase the number of beekeepers, the number of beehives, and also the number of beekeeping businesses.

“The programme consists of 30 farmers that have been selected by GDARD. “There is recognition that we have a problem and that the number [of bees] needs to increase. We hope that the beekeeping development programme will produce and protect new swarms that will replace the bees that have been lost due to urban development,” Lundall-Magnuson added. – Siyanda Sishuba

FOTOLIA ABOVE:Wild bee colonies have severely declined in recent years, which could provide small-scale entrepreneurs with an opportunity to generate income.