The Katavi Region Commissioner (RC), Dr Rajab Rutengwe, has reiterated his call for farmers particularly young people to form economic groups so that they actively engage themselves in beekeeping, saying it requires small capital and yet yields colossal profits.
Katavi Regional Commissioner, Dr Rajab Rutengwe
The RC said this while handing over 590 modern beehives worth over 38m/- to 25 youth groups in Mlele District donated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to encourage beekeeping in Katavi and Tabora regions.
Dr Rutengwe also encouraged the use of modern beehives instead of traditional ones, noting that the former enables production of huge quantities of honey.
“To start a beekeeping project does not need huge capital only three bee-hives can get you going and eventually improve your lives,” said Dr Rutengwe who assured the farmers that honey and beeswax were in high demand in foreign countries including Europe, the United States and Far East.
According to the RC, already more than 18 square km of land has been allocated at Msisi Village in Mlele District for modern bee keeping,”That is a huge portion of land and I have been informed that only an acre can accommodate more than 200 modern bee hives,” he added.
The newly established Mlele District, with an area covering 28,000 sq km of land, is famous for bee keeping in Katavi Region. However, the country has enough bees with the capacity to produce 138,000 metric tonnes of honey and 10,000 metric tonnes of beeswax per year.
However, it only produces 9,000 metric tonnes of honey worth 27bn/- and 600 metric tonnes of beeswax worth 3bn/-. Ethiopia leads in African countries producing honey and is number eight in the world with 39,000 tonnes of honey per year.
It stands as number four in beeswax, selling 4,300 tonnes per year. The cross section of farmers mostly youths interviewed by the ‘Daily News’ lauded the Mlele District authority for being actively engaged in providing them with education in various issues related to beekeeping, including importance of using modern beehives and how to increase the quality of honey.
By PETI SIYAME, Tanzania Daily News