Department of Commercial Crops Fruits & Forestry

Private beekeeping sector support innitiative

Beekeeping plays an active role in household livelihood strategies for many families of Zanzibar. However, over the years it has not progressed at the commercial level due to lack of attention, poor tools and equipment for the preparation of the quality honey. Beekeeping in Zanzibar is traditional and providing key employment for private groups and individuals in rural areas. Beekeepers use both traditional and modern beehives that introduced in 1980. More than 250 individuals and 100 groups mainly women were trained in beekeeping and some of them had adapted to the activity, though in low capacity. Nevertheless, male dominated activity in which fire is been used to harvest honey in the natural build-in hives in the groves of tree or hanging on branches.

This project acknowledges the threats on the dwindling ecological resources base and therefore, calls for integrated biodiversity management and livelihood improvement in meeting the households’ present demands without compromising resource base in which the communities thrive to conserve. As such this project is another step-forward towards poverty alleviation. It is therefore possible by establishing alternative to resources utilisation around forested area. Beekeeping could help engage the local communities in the conservation efforts of the resources base.

Apparently, there is a thriving local market for bee honey in Zanzibar. In most instances, the honey is been used as part of the food or food supplement by mixing up with other kind of food to improve palatability. Women would use specific amount of honey to feed their children. However the most important use of honey in Zanzibar is medical. With increasing number of ailment and limited financial capacity for modern medicine most Zanzibaris has remained using honey as part of their alternative medicine. Even for the little honey that is being exported to the households in the Middle East is been used for medical purpose. This project seeks to capitalise on this aspect since it is well known that every part of Zanzibar produces different quality of honey depending on the vegetative composition.

Traditional methods of beekeeping have inherent disadvantages in production of quality honey and bee wax and conservation of bee and their habitats. Hive do not permits the management and efficient harvesting resulting in low quality and quantity. Mean moisture content of honey produced in Zanzibar is beyond the allowable limits in Tanzania. This can be improved by adoption of top bars hives for easy management and harvesting. The methods are affordable by women who are primary target group of the project.

The percentage of honey analysed at the Chief Government indicates 59% before 1995 and only 16.8% after 1995 of the total honey production in Zanzibar (Msuya, 2002). The decline with time this shows that illegal traffic of honeybee products as increased and seemingly there is still a room for increased production by encouraging producers and traders to follow the procedure in honey export.

Honey produced from cloves buds and mangroves fetch good market within the country and out side. There is other several potential tree species in the family Leguminoceae, Papilionaceae Caesalpinaceae, Rutaceae, Combretaceae in the East Coast thickets of Zanzibar that can be put in beekeeping practices and enhance conservation while improving rural livelihoods.

However, with little knowledge, skills and technical know how, in harvesting, processing, packaging and marketing of their bees products, they mostly producing honey and wax of low qualities, which fetch low prices in local markets and cannot guarantee the overseas markets.

This initiative intends to empower private sectors in the engagement on beekeeping production focusing improvement in harvesting, processing, and marketing so as to have quality products that could attract both local and foreign markets and enhance self-reliance in beekeeping industry
Project area..................................................

The project will cover villages around protected areas in Pemba and Unguja. Particularly village areas around the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park and those of the wider areas to include Cheju, Unguja Ukuu, Pete, Jozani, Charawe, Ukongoroni, Bwejuu, Paje, Muungoni Muyuni. In Pemba the project will cover villages surrounding Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve framework to expand its activities through the whole of Pemba since all over the island the potential for honey production is very high

Project rationale

Beekeeping in Zanzibar has good potentials of bee plants particularly in Pemba. The clove plantations and the forests (coral rag and those in deep soil) are huge reservoirs of honey plants, a wealth greater than products from the most fertile cultivated land. As such Zanzibar honey that can be organic with appreciated level of medicinal properties is at the comparative advantage especially with its connectivity to the Middle East, the main market for Zanzibar honey. Even with this comparative advantage the Zanzibar honey need to be pure, without impurities since such impurities would render Zanzibar honey ineffectual in the world market.

It is important to note that, over the year beekeeping and honey production in Zanzibar has always been under the private sector initiatives. This needs to be strengthened by the provision of support services and formulation of the long-term strategic interventions. Such intervention should take into consideration the conservation value of the resource base and commercialisation of the bee honey products.

The need to support the organisation function of the beekeepers is apparent since beekeepers are all over the places with no mechanism for coordination of their interests. The problem of initial investment will be addressed through the integration of saving and credit scheme within the project framework in order to increase to level of capital investment. There are required self-bidding guidelines and operating procedures or manual for the production and marketing of the honey in which this project seeks to advocate. Such manual will set forth standard to which the brand of honey Zanzibar will promote. There are required also a comprehensive data base and information about market in which through beekeepers association or through Chambers of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture will be developed to provide reference to further development.

Trade liberalization and realization of the value of honey and bees wax as article of commerce has brought fierce competition among traders in the country. The result is haphazard collection of unclean and adulterated products. Currently there is no legislation to control he quality of products, which is very important for market sustainability. Production of honey in Zanzibar is estimated to be about 3.5% of the production potential. The presence of impurities renders Zanzibar’s honey be un--saleable to world markets with stringent requirements. Nevertheless, Zanzibar’s organic/medicinal honey is in high demand worldwide especially, in Gulf countries

Project objectives

The ultimate goal of this bankable investment initiative is to improve the welfare of private beekeepers (women and men) and integrate beekeeping as part of biodiversity conservation strategy. This initiative also seeks to improve the beekeeping activities through empowerment of local beekeepers on appropriate technologies in managing beekeeping industry, focusing in environmental management practices and set forth quality improvement for honey processing. The initiative intended to encourage private beekeepers to access credit services from banking financial institutions for better way of managing the industry. The results would be accelerated private sector investment, improved food security, access to financial services and biodiversity protection. More specifically, this initiative is intended:

Project description

The Private Sector on Beekeeping development stems on the existing government policy of privatization, which encourage local community to enter into activities that have economic significance. The project will support increased investment by private beekeepers and help to build up better professional linkage between the public and private beekeepers. The project will work with small-scale private beekeepers to add value of the produce, improve market competition, and access new form of advisory services. The project would run for five years and shall accommodate the following activities under the components

Training/Capacity Building for farmers

Training for Officers

Workshop on beekeeping management techniques
Short course

Beekeeping harvesting, processing, packing and storage techniques

Project coordination and management programme

Proposed sources of financing

In the planning process of this initiative no financing institution(s) have been secured nor identified. However, NEPAD is considered as primary facilitator in the process of securing institutions to support the project. Government of Zanzibar will only ensure availability of her staff to assist and facilitate smooth implementation and running on the initiative.

Project benefits

The main benefits anticipated from the project are categorized into three main aspects:

Social aspect:

Economic aspect:

a) There shall be an expansion of income from sale of honey and non-honey based products from groups/individual. At community level this will provide opportunity to generate income, which would help to alleviate poverty amongst rural population and improve living standards. At national level, the initiative might be an additional source of government revenues through taxes and other charges.

Environmental aspect:

The project would ensure sustainable use of natural vegetation and ensure survival of useful plants and other biodiversity, hence improve conservation of forest resources.

Implementation arrangements

The Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Cooperative, Zanzibar will coordinate the project. The Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry will ensure co-ordination between the line Ministry and stakeholders at local level. The coordination will also involve professional chambers of Commerce, financial and technical service providers.

Day to day implementation will be the responsibility of private sectors that will be selected at village level based on capacity of the farmers. The selection will ensure representative of from each district. Women groups will be given high consideration.

The project will develop collaborative relationships to specialist rganization with experience in range of appropriate areas such as developing small scale savings and credit schemes, honey business planning and management, honey marketing and processing. The project will also co-operate with bee research centers in Arusha and other institutions to assist to planning and implementation of training. At district level, the project will liaise closely with the District officers in the field of Forestry, Cooperative, Women and Youth development and village leaders.

Technical assistance requierements

Beekeeping is implemented traditionally in Zanzibar situation which posses major challenges to the improvement of the industry. Since some new development activities will be executed in the general management of the sector, short-term technical assistance (National and International) will be required to provide specialist input in the following activities:

Honey Harvesting and Processing Specialist: With adequate experience in the use of appropriate methods and techniques employed in honey harvesting and processing of both honey and non-honey products under the local conditions. The specialist should be aware of the national and international honey standards that are currently in practice and have quality control mechanism to ensure quality products.

Marketing Specialist: With adequate experience in marketing of honey and non-honey based products (e.g. Bees wax) at local, regional and international levels. The market specialist shall identify suitable intervention that would add value to honey products, identify appropriate market sources at local, regional and international levels and have the knowledge and skills in quality control measures.

Issues and proposed actions

Sustainable market:
The most reliable market of Zanzibar honey is at local, where much of the products are sold and used as food and medicine. Gulf and Western states markets are considered potential but difficult to penetrate especially Western States as the quality of honey produced are poor, due to, inadequate processing and poor harvesting techniques. This project intends to improve the skills in harvesting and processing of honey products so that Zanzibar honey could compete and secure sustainable markets ant regional and international point of view.

Deforestation:
Population increases in the country, pressurize deforestation due to bad farming practices, tourism industries, and need for fuel and construction; these activities lead to a large disappearance of suitable flora species for Apiculture strategies in Zanzibar. The project will impart conservation awareness to local community and other private investors to ensure protection of the flora, which are important for honey production.

Possible risks

The risks associated with this project, which could hinder project implementation include: