Beekeeping is being encouraged as a livelihood in nine provinces with great success.
The Ministry of Agriculture estimates production of honey has touched new heights. Some 6,000 people in Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Nangarhar, Ghazni,
Beekeeping is being encouraged as a livelihood in nine provinces with great success.
The Ministry of Agriculture estimates production of honey has touched new heights. Some 6,000 people in Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Nangarhar, Ghazni, Lugar, Paktia and Herat are working individually or in cooperatives to make honey.
Officials in the ministry say beekeeping is actively encouraged with farmers being trained to handle bee boxes and tools for the processing of honey.
A beekeeping development project, bankrolled to the tune of 3 million Euros by the Agency French Development, was launched in 2012. The overall objective was to increase food security and income generation especially in remote areas. Technical support and assistance were given to beekeepers including the women’s welfare association of Jabal saraj district, Parwan, which had 44 bees’ colonies.
The Darulaman beekeeping centre received special attention. Five hundred kilogrammes of sugar were provided to the centre for winter feeding of 43 bees’ colonies.
The union of honey beekeepers in Nangarhar confirms the facilities for beekeeping and both production and business have grown in recent years. Riaz Mohammad is the head of a honey factory and a member of a beekeepers union. He says there are 200 farms producing honey in the province. The union provides beekeepers all kinds of assistance including providing them tents to pitch in the wild. “Our union has some 220 members and (also) helps the owners of bees market their honey,” says Riaz Mohammad.
Abdullah, a resident of Nangarhar, who has been a beekeeper for 20 years, says he has set up 60 apiaries in Barik ab area. But the absence of forests and flowers here has meant the bee boxes are transported across the border for better yields of honey. Many bees perish in the journey and apiary owners suffer financially. Riaz Mohammad says they have asked the government to actively green the area so that the “business of beekeeping grows inside the country and owners are not faced with losses.”
Flourishing business
Officials in the agriculture and livestock department in Herat province also confirm there is an increase in interest in beekeeping. Engineer Fakhrudin, the head of the livestock development department in Herat, says that some 52 members of honey bee growers union in Herat produced 16 tonnes of honey from 2,200 boxes. There has been an increase in the number of members. “The number of members has risen to 100. They can produce twice the quantity that was produced last year,” says an optimistic Engineer Fakhrudin.
Afghanistan does not as yet have a big export market for honey but there are endless possibilities. Now honey from Herat is sold mainly to neighbouring countries like Iran and Russia and the domestic market in other provinces.
Meanwhile in Helmand province, which is largely a battlefield, apiaries have been set up with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Habibullah Habibi who is in-charge of beekeeping for Herat province says Helmand, which is a very green province, has an ideal environment for apiaries. People in four districts of the province are being offered a chance to take up beekeeping as a source of employment. Habibi says, “We help the growers market the honey.”
Esmatullah who trains people in beekeeping says the training workshops are conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture. “People are now realising that bees are good also for their gardens,” says Esmatullah.
Programmes for beekeeping have several objectives. They have successfully increased honey production and marketing, and also created jobs and increased the productivity of orchards.
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