Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on Aug 1, 2010 21:02:22 GMT 1
Beekeeping in Nigeria
Written By: Daniel Essiet of The Nation News Paper on 23/07/2010
The Beekeeping industry is fast becoming a big money spinner. By all indications, the market is expected to be higher this year, going by simple supply-and-demand projections and price prospects. Projections are based on assumption of normal weather and strong domestic use of honey.
But the industry is servicing a market that is not characterised by regulations on a number of issues. Following this, farmers in apiculture are facing the challenge of ensuring that everyone, from shoppers to food processors, get the best bees that offer high quality, healthy honey.
Across the country also, honey laundering has become so rampant, following the inability of the government to launch a crackdown to curtail the practice.
Many Nigerians have reported buying an unlabeled blend, adulterated with impossible-to-detect cheap sweeteners. Consumers walk away with the finest-tasting, highest-quality honey there is but adulterated.
An apiculturist with the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Abia State, Mr. Victor Obi, said there is a challenge of keeping adulterated or contaminated honey from reaching the market.
While there are huge prospects for those who want to go into beekeeping, Obi said the industry is confronting lack of knowledge to curb domestic tampering.
Although he has no problem with identifying true honey, the hindrance presently is that there is no way to prosecute someone for adulteration of honey when the industry can’t define what honey is.
Obi, who heads the Apiculture Unit, NRCRI, called for enforcement of standards to save the industry. "Bee hives products offer much more than can be desired in supporting life expectancy. The bee hive products include honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bees wax and propolis all of which possess great potentials capable of promoting therapeutic, nutritional and economic values of Nigerians. Millions are not earned from cropping honey alone but from packaging colonies of bees sold to plantation farmers, for insect pollination of their crops for bumper harvest and development of fruits and seeds."
According to him, the demand for bee hive products was on the increase due to education on their importance.
"It is needed on the dining tables for use in place of industrial sugar as sweetener and for confec-tionaries too. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries depend on honey for their production."
Advising Nigerians to venture into beekeeping, Obi said, "it will not only ensure availability of pure honey in markets but will also increase crops yield through the pollinating activities of the honey bees and subsequent economic return to the farmer."
The Managing Director, The Thy Consulting, Mr. Ismail Abdul Azeez, said adulteration of honey was a very wrong practice.
He said honey merchants indulge in it to make quick money but that adulterated honey is a risk to the public. The problem is that the sellers don’t even sell the adulterated honey for a cheaper price.
Azeez, who runs a honey farm, said instead of selling adulterated honey ,farmers should collaborate to meet supply targets, adding that he was in touch with the nation’s largest honey suppliers.
Azeez, a trainer on beekeeping, said people have not realised the importance of the beekeeping industry, not just for honey production but for the scores of food crops that must be pollinated.
With opportunities opening for pollination contracts, Azeez said there is need for strong healthy hives of bees.
For him, one of the greatest services of bees to mankind is providing a service as pollinators to many plants. A lot of crops grown depend on insect pollination, performed primarily by the honeybee.
Azeez is spearheading a move to foster the development of stronger associations and networks among beekeepers.
He believes working together in organised groups through his online forum would help beekeepers to add value to their products, take advantage of technical assistance, and meet challenges in the future.
"So far, tainted honey; seem not to be on the watch list of the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), going by the way the agency has been pursing other issues. The government has not carried out intense scrutiny of honey sold in the market."
Many health practitioners consider honey a minor miracle drug. Most Nigerians, however, prefer native honey because they are not exposed to pesticides, fertilisers and pollutants.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/web3/business/agriculture/6756.html
Written By: Daniel Essiet of The Nation News Paper on 23/07/2010
The Beekeeping industry is fast becoming a big money spinner. By all indications, the market is expected to be higher this year, going by simple supply-and-demand projections and price prospects. Projections are based on assumption of normal weather and strong domestic use of honey.
But the industry is servicing a market that is not characterised by regulations on a number of issues. Following this, farmers in apiculture are facing the challenge of ensuring that everyone, from shoppers to food processors, get the best bees that offer high quality, healthy honey.
Across the country also, honey laundering has become so rampant, following the inability of the government to launch a crackdown to curtail the practice.
Many Nigerians have reported buying an unlabeled blend, adulterated with impossible-to-detect cheap sweeteners. Consumers walk away with the finest-tasting, highest-quality honey there is but adulterated.
An apiculturist with the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Abia State, Mr. Victor Obi, said there is a challenge of keeping adulterated or contaminated honey from reaching the market.
While there are huge prospects for those who want to go into beekeeping, Obi said the industry is confronting lack of knowledge to curb domestic tampering.
Although he has no problem with identifying true honey, the hindrance presently is that there is no way to prosecute someone for adulteration of honey when the industry can’t define what honey is.
Obi, who heads the Apiculture Unit, NRCRI, called for enforcement of standards to save the industry. "Bee hives products offer much more than can be desired in supporting life expectancy. The bee hive products include honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bees wax and propolis all of which possess great potentials capable of promoting therapeutic, nutritional and economic values of Nigerians. Millions are not earned from cropping honey alone but from packaging colonies of bees sold to plantation farmers, for insect pollination of their crops for bumper harvest and development of fruits and seeds."
According to him, the demand for bee hive products was on the increase due to education on their importance.
"It is needed on the dining tables for use in place of industrial sugar as sweetener and for confec-tionaries too. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries depend on honey for their production."
Advising Nigerians to venture into beekeeping, Obi said, "it will not only ensure availability of pure honey in markets but will also increase crops yield through the pollinating activities of the honey bees and subsequent economic return to the farmer."
The Managing Director, The Thy Consulting, Mr. Ismail Abdul Azeez, said adulteration of honey was a very wrong practice.
He said honey merchants indulge in it to make quick money but that adulterated honey is a risk to the public. The problem is that the sellers don’t even sell the adulterated honey for a cheaper price.
Azeez, who runs a honey farm, said instead of selling adulterated honey ,farmers should collaborate to meet supply targets, adding that he was in touch with the nation’s largest honey suppliers.
Azeez, a trainer on beekeeping, said people have not realised the importance of the beekeeping industry, not just for honey production but for the scores of food crops that must be pollinated.
With opportunities opening for pollination contracts, Azeez said there is need for strong healthy hives of bees.
For him, one of the greatest services of bees to mankind is providing a service as pollinators to many plants. A lot of crops grown depend on insect pollination, performed primarily by the honeybee.
Azeez is spearheading a move to foster the development of stronger associations and networks among beekeepers.
He believes working together in organised groups through his online forum would help beekeepers to add value to their products, take advantage of technical assistance, and meet challenges in the future.
"So far, tainted honey; seem not to be on the watch list of the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), going by the way the agency has been pursing other issues. The government has not carried out intense scrutiny of honey sold in the market."
Many health practitioners consider honey a minor miracle drug. Most Nigerians, however, prefer native honey because they are not exposed to pesticides, fertilisers and pollutants.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/web3/business/agriculture/6756.html