Case Studies

Nou


Beekeeping and the Nou community

Kopa Ama is the chairman of Madunga Beekeeping Group, in Madunga village, Babati District in the Manyara region of Tanzania. With assistance from FARM-Africa the group has learnt the importance of forest conservation for effective beekeeping.

In 2005 the FARM-Africa Nou JFM project and the village government set up the Madunga Beekeeping Group which has fifteen members. The group was given twenty-seven modern beehives by FARM-Africa. Kopa Ama explains, “We are preparing to collect our second harvest of honey in September. We harvest the honey twice a year in September and January. The first harvest was not too large as a result of ants attacking the hives but since that experience we have been trained how to prevent ants from returning and have been inspecting the hives closely. This harvest time we expect to get at least 100 litres of honey”. Abel Masota, PFM advisor of Nou JFM thinks that the harvest could produce as much as 400 litres of honey.

Ama continues, “on average we expect to sell honey for 2,000 Tanzanian shillings per litre. The group is planning to open a bank account and to continue our work which will include buying hives and  training community members.”  The group also hopes to sell modern beehives which will increase their income while improving livelihoods and forest conservation.

Ama explained that honey has a high cultural value in their village. It is believed to have high medicinal value; it is used to make a local brew called, gesuda, and is given as part of a wedding dowry. Ama says that the most important role of honey in the community “is to ensure that people always speak the truth. If someone is caught lying and is made to eat honey by elders, it is believed that bad fate will follow.”

 “Our challenge is meeting the demand,” says Ama. “There is a big local market for honey so all we need to do is work harder. Farming is our major livelihood in this area but we can greatly supplement it with beekeeping. We do not want to stop with honey production; learning how to produce was is among our plans for the future.”