Bee Keeping at Kinjolu

Project Background

Bees have globally undergone a vast decline over the last twenty years. Our goal is to make bee keeping an additional income to the farmers that we work with. However bee keeping is a long an arduous journey; the experience required to ensure that the bees neither perish nor swam is extensive.  We therefore cantered the project in just one AMCOS, Kinjolu, placing the responsibility in the hands of two women from the community.

How can we make a difference?

We felt it was important to empower local women in the Mbinga community. We also believe that by concentrating this knowledge with fewer more specialised individuals we will lay the foundations for success that is required for further growth. Success w ill only come from a platform in which the bee’s welfare is paramount.  We are therefore starting on a very small scale with just 10 hives between the two ladies as we want this to become a viable business in the area – income diversity is a central pillar of Kijani’s “Total Agriculture” vision.

What have we done?

Initially two volunteer women were trained in Iringa, learning how to bee keep using “Kenyan Top Bar” hives. The one week course was bolstered with additional support once the hives were populated. Kijani will offer to buy the honey for either the local Mbinga / Dar Es Salaam markets or for export to the UK. We want to promote bee keeping to improve coffee pollination and once again to promote biodiversity. 

Next Steps

Once the ladies have proven that they can succeed Kijani will finance the acquisition of more hives and send for training two more women, the four women will operate 20 hives between them. In time we want to build a women’s honey cooperative embedded within our coffee supply chain.