Bee farming is lucrative, but challenges persist

‘Honey farming is lucrative, but meeting demand is challenging.’ These were the words of Mr Abudu Inanigie, a bee farmer in Edo State. He said that honey farming is very easy and profitable if one follows the right procedures and best practices. Still, people are not willing to venture into it because they see it […]

‘Honey farming is lucrative, but meeting demand is challenging.’ These were the words of Mr Abudu Inanigie, a bee farmer in Edo State.

He said that honey farming is very easy and profitable if one follows the right procedures and best practices. Still, people are not willing to venture into it because they see it as difficult, coupled with the bee stings associated with it.

Mr Inanigie, a retired civil servant, said he has found pleasure in bee farming, describing it as very simple and not as difficult as other farming systems.

Abudu, who has a farm at Auchi and Ikabigbo community in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, also teaches people who want to venture into bee farming.

He noted that bee-keeping, like other farming, also has teething challenges that are keeping people away from it.

Mr Inanigie said getting land with enough flowers is one of the challenges, because the bees rely on flower nectar for production, and without it, production would be difficult.

“The modern act of bee-keeping (global practice) has not been imbibed by the few people who are into it,” said Mr Inanigie, “because those in it are not disposed to global best practice.”

According to him, the high rate of adulteration of honey by sellers makes it difficult for people to believe there is natural honey.

“Because of the adulteration, people can’t distinguish between natural and adulterated honey, and this affects the price of the product.”

He noted that beekeepers have no access to government facilities like loans, grants, or inputs, among others.

“This becomes a challenge because government doesn’t have an inventory of farmers in Nigeria, knowing who they are, their farms, and their numbers.”

He, however, added that insufficient enlightenment or awareness about beekeeping is another challenge pushing the youth away from it.

Also, another challenge is theft and insecurity, saying people do go and harvest the honey using fire, which is not good for the bee-keeping business.

 

Market

According to him, there is high demand for honey, “but we hardly meet the demand for it because few people are in the business.

“Once people know that you have natural honey, they will continue to patronize you, and servicing them with the quantity they demand is sometimes difficult.”

 

How to Start Bee-Keeping

“As a beginner, you should start in a small way, and as time goes on, with little progress, you can continue to expand.

He explained that one needs to have the knowledge and understanding of bee behaviour so as to really succeed at it.

“We have different types of bees—such as docile and the vicious bees—and the most common in Nigeria is vicious bees. It is when you understand this that you can become a successful beekeeper, either for consumption or commercial purposes.”

According to him, as a beginner, one needs to have protective clothing for coverage, such as a bee suit, and equipment, like a smoker, to smoke the bees to reduce their aggressive nature, gloves, and a beehive for the production of honey.

“For the beehive, you construct boxes and a stand to hang it, but you can get the boxes attached to trees if one can’t construct a stand.

“You also require a place where you have flowers because the bees require nectar to produce honey. It should be a place that is accessible, where one can easily monitor the bees.

“You start about four to five bee colonies and learn with them, and as time goes on with the experience you have gained, you would have adapted yourself to it, because bee stings are a regular occurrence in bee-keeping,” he said.

He noted that as a bee farmer, you can’t do away with bee stings, but you can only limit them with protective clothes.

 

Prices 

In bee farming, the issue of middlemen is not important because the farmers have access to buyers, unlike other farming activities.

“The prices vary because the price you would sell to companies is different from that of neighbours or an ordinary person.

“A 50cl bottle of honey is between N6,000 and N7,000; 75cl is between N9,000 and N10,000, and there are places it goes for N15,000 and above, while a litre, which is 100cl, is about N15,000. A 10-litre is about N150,000 and above. Also, a four-litre is about N40,000. Honey is on the high side because of its spiritual and economic value.”

He said  farmers need awareness, adding that “though people are still used to the traditional method, the best practice is to adopt the modern bee-keeping method, which enables you to monitor the activities of the bees, and know when they have a problem of disease infection and can take care of it.”