By Olive Ejang Tebug Ngoh
Some bee farmers in the Southwest Province were recently trained on how to make their venture profitable by processing both honey and its bi-products.
The two-day training took place at the Women Empowerment Centre, Kumba.The participants received fresh knowledge on honey quality, good harvest and smoking, pollen, propolis and royal jelly production, bee venom extraction and queen rearing, honey wine and mead, bee-keeping equipment, honey marketing, and access to finances.
According to the Southwest technical adviser of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, Irene Manyi Ako, the training is part of mobilisation and capacity building for small and medium size enterprises involved in the value chains of non-wood forest products in Central Africa.
She said the selected bee farmers are expected to further train members of their organisations to make bee farming a more profitable undertaking.Besong Bakia of the Netherlands Development Cooperation, SNV, told the community builders to let their knowledge be income-generating.
He said the bee farmers must sacrifice to make quality honey and bi-products like soap, candle and honey wine, amongst others.Besong said they would organise follow-up workshops to see that bee farmers exploit all the resources available to them.
Thomas Atabe, President of the Tombel-Bangem Bee Farmers Association, said the skills they acquired would increase their production and subsequently income.Andreas Mbeng Agbor of Tiko Bee Farmers Common Initiative Group, CIG, said he was happy to learn queen rearing which would help him increase his colonies for honey production.FAO, SNV and World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, jointly organised the training.
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