Working Bees for Increased Income & Better Nutrition in Remote Communities. Beekeeping provides healthier dietary options and increased incomes for remote communities.
Background
Their contribution to the environment, the existing ecosystems reflect how Important bees are.
Although a small industry In Fiji, the Fiji Beekeepers Association (FBA) has been working hard to promote the importance of bees.
There has been a huge interest in beekeeping, but there has been a lack of technical knowledge and formal training to feed the interest.
To ensure that much of the country benefited from formal training, FBA organised basic beekeeping workshops during the first year of FO4ACP, and ensuing years caw the introduction of a mentorship program where identified mentors managed an upcoming beekeeper, and others interested In beekeeping.
There was a limited number allowed for each mentor to train.
For the basic beekeeping workshops, there were 4 trainers identified for Fiji – two were on the largest and most populated island of Viti Levu, and two were identified for Vanua Levu.
These trainers then became mentors in the ensuing years of the project, but were also able to continue delivering basic beekeeper training for new comers to the industry.
The Support and Monitoring
Each trainer received an overhead projector and screen, along with a printer. In the first year alone for basic training, there were 289 participants across the country.
In order to keep the momentum for those who were trained and wished to continue to develop their beekeeping skills, ten mentors were identified.
They helped to deliver training in the splitting of hives and the rearing of queen bees, and the project supported their costs for meeting their student beekeepers on a regular basis.
The success of these programs saw communities request training.
One such area included remote communities in the North of Fiji, on Vanua Levu.
Across this area alone, interviews were conducted with 5 beekeepers and 1 community of 20 households and the success of their work has been noted by others, seeing a huge growth in beneficiaries.
Impacts
All 5 individuals interviewed had full time jobs, so honey provided a supplementary average income of approximately FJD$5,490 (EURO 2,290) per person over 3 years – Total revenue earned by 4 individuals from conducting training over 3 years was FJD$10,830 (EURO 4,500) per person.
The beneficiaries from these trainings included 2 village communities of 285 people in total, and these villages have requested additional training having seen the benefits of honey by way of nutrition and income.
Revenue has also been enjoyed through the community from having learnt how to rear queen bees and building of hives to sell on to other interested beekeepers
Fiji Beekeepers Association – FIJI
