Poster for the ‘Market-Oriented Smallholder Development: IPMS Experience-Sharing Workshop,’ Addis Ababa, 2-3 June 2011

1. Improved bee forage development as an input to enhance beekeep-
ing productivity and income of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), IPMS-ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1. Introduction
3.2 Understanding on the dynamics of bee forage sources
Beekeeping has been indentified as an important income generating commodity
that fits well within the smallholder agricultural development and resource con-
servations in Ethiopia. Traditionally, beekeeping has been managed as a sideline Rainfall pattern
activity and its potential as sources of household income has been underutilized 90
largely due to limited skills on the dynamics of nectar flow and its relationship
to honeybee colony management. In this regard, various interventions and ap- 75
proaches has been tested and promoted on bee forage development integrated
Rainfall distribution (%)
60
with honeybee colony management to enhance market oriented beekeeping pro-
ductivity. The approaches of bee forage interventions, achievements and lessons 45
learned are presented.
30
2. Intervention approaches and implementation 15
0
Happy period Transitional period Dry period Frost period
Period of the year
3.3 Changes in skills on
Honeybee population
Maximum
Nectar flow status
nectar flow Maximum
Increasing
nectar Declining Decline
flow nectar flow
Build up
March July October February March July October February
Month Month
3. Achievements 3.4 Changes in skills on marketable oriented beekeeping products/bee forage
3.1 Changes in bee forage availability
Steep lands bee forage
development: Before
(left) and after interven-
tion (right)
3.5 Mechanisms of skill/experience sharing and uptake
• Learning and experience sharing platforms
established.
• Experience have been shared among
experiences and less experienced beekeepers.
Bottomlands bee for- • Special field visits, tours, exhibition and discus-
age development: Be- sions to reflect lessons captured.
fore (left) and after
intervention (right)
Uptake in Atsbi-Womberta district
Backyard bee forage develop-
ment: After intervention
4. Lessons learned
Irrigated bee forage
• Strengthen the skills and experience on basic understanding of the dynamic relationships of nectar flow and honeybee
development: After
colony management is essential for profitable beekeeping management.
intervention
• Beekeeping needs a year round full time follow up and found to be a profitable option for landless youth.
• Establishment of learning platforms and experience sharing tour of beekeepers is an easy way to scale out and up
market oriented beekeeping management.
• Beekeeping has been a profitable business under extreme rainfall variability and relatively resilient to rainfall induced
stress.