Safeguard Bees and Beekeepers in Madagascar

The economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, compounded by the worst drought since 1981, have left small-scale beekeepers in a difficult situation amid soaring prices for staple foods. With failed harvests drastically reducing food and incomes, resulting in famine, there is an urgent need for strengthening alternative, sustainable livelihood strategies.

One key challenge faced by Project Renitantely beekeepers is the limited access to markets. All target communities are located within 35km of the more lucrative urban market of Fort Dauphin; however, poor infrastructure and prohibitive transport costs force honey sellers to travel by foot, taking up to 12 hours. The inability to afford overnight stays in Fort Dauphin results in an urgency to sell the honey, reducing its price.

To address this challenge, SEED has identified a new route to market. A Malagasy honey exporter that markets to international consumers operates near Project Renitantely’s six target communities. The company uses a honey extractor, which currently isn’t compatible with the hive frames Project Renitantely beekeepers use. SEED will help adapt the hives to make them compatible with the extractor. SEED will also trial the use of wax foundations that bees build honeycomb on inside the frames. These wax foundations save bees’ energies and can therefore increase the honey yield that can be sold by beekeepers.

Without SEED’s intervention, beneficiaries may have to abandon their beekeeping enterprises to meet immediate needs during an increased period of economic hardship. To prevent this, SEED is seeking funding for this interim project to improve beekeeping as a viable and sustainable livelihood by addressing key challenges faced by beekeepers.

Misaotra betsaka (Thank you very much) for supporting Project Renitantely!

During the more productive harvesting season, beekeepers want to use ‘supers’ to expand their beehives. A super is a second level that is placed on top of a strong hive. The bees then have more space to fill with honey and wax, providing the beekeeper with more opportunities to profit from the livelihood during this season. Supers can be constructed by beekeepers using local materials in much the same way that a regular hive can. 

When adding a super, beekeepers should also use a queen excluder. The queen excluder is placed between the main hive and the super to prevent queen bees from crossing and laying eggs in the super, where the beekeeper only wants honey. Keeping the super exclusively for honeycomb allows for an easier, cleaner, and more abundant harvest. 

Unfortunately, queen excluders are relatively expensive and cannot be purchased within 900 km of Fort Dauphin. This means that obtaining a queen excluder is often beyond the means of rural beekeepers in the Anosy region. However, Domaine, one of our beekeepers, has come up with a creative solution: weaving them out of local materials like mahampy reeds or ravinala leaves. In September, the beekeepers and the SEED technicians trialed the woven queen excluder. They found that it works just as well as the plastic ones, and no purchase or long-distance travel is required. 

This is an especially convenient solution, as weaving is a skill that can already be found in nearly every household in rural Anosy; the vast majority of women in rural communities make and sell woven products to supplement their income. The beekeeping technicians have shown all of the Renitantely beekeepers how they can employ this skill to create the handmade queen excluders. 

These woven queen excluders will become an even more essential tool in August when honey harvesting season begins and more hives become strong enough to produce honey that can be harvested. 

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