This is an article written on the motivation of a rural developmant project in northen Mozambique province of Zamnbezia. The donar funding comes from DFiD and we are working with the Non Governmental Organisation, World Vision.

1. Introduction.

Apiculture has been identified as an excellent method of increasing the standard of living amongst the rural population of Mozambique. Vasco de Gama spoke of the beekeeping on the East African coast in 1498. Most traditional beekeepers of Mozambique died during the independence and civil wars of the last 30 years. Apiculture has been traditional in Mozambique for many centuries.

The history of producing bees wax and honey from controlled "traditional bee keeping" has shown that certain areas are indeed very favorable to bee keeping and the production of apicultural products. Before the civil war Mozambique was rated as the biggest wax exporter worldwide. We aim to revitalize this apicultural potential. Unfortunately in many areas the culture and knowledge for traditional bee keeping was lost in the war period. Amongst other reasons this was because the tradition was handed down from father to a chosen son and thus due to the length of the war and the inability to continue the practice, this knowledge was lost. A number of extensive training programs have been established in Mozambique and in neighboring countries. Some have partially succeeded but many have failed due to a lack of management, lack of marketing, poor training, unsuitable equipment and poor project implementation.

2. Proposal.

We propose to test the feasibility of producing honey within a rural community that would then be of export quality. Mel de Rupert, a company in formation will handle the commercialisation of the honey. The project is based on local participation. We are here to produce honey and not to specifically train beekeepers. We will, if it proves feasible and viable as a commercial operation, then have to train many beekeepers, but that is not our primary goal at the moment. We propose to take the process back to its first principle with the goal of improving the quality of living for the rural villager at which this project is aimed. We plan to inject cash into the community at its base level of the family unit in the rural areas. This beekeeping project is aimed at all rural Mozambicans but primarily at women, as women have been at the lowest of the pecking order in this African society for many generations. From a practical point of view, it is predominantly the women who run the families, as many men leave their homes and country to generate an income as migrant workers in neighboring countries, for example the migrant workers who travel to the gold mines in South Africa for employment. The aim of this project is to empower woman with the skills to generate an income to increase the standard of living. It also establishes and builds a sense of self-achievement and pride. Thus it achieves the goals of traditional and current developmental projects world wide. Although we plan to uplift the rural women of Mozambique as the primary target it is not feasible to ignore the male sector due to the social problems such plans would involve. We will train the men as carpenters, beekeepers and factory employees when the project shows commercial viability.

3. Project areas

We are primarily concerned with doing a feasibility study of Zambezia province, Mozambique. We intend to test the feasibility of beekeeping in the vegetation sources and types found within the province and this has been the basis along which the distribution of the hives has been decided. Mocuba is the regional headquarters for the project. We have chosen this location as it is the most central to the various areas where we wish to work. This naturally cuts down on the considerable distances from one location to another, which would be the primary cost other than the production of the hives. We have also chosen areas where developmental work has been implemented (in various capacities) and will work in those areas as a secondary line of development. An example of this is that the road to Maganja de Costa has been rehabilitated. Thus by working down this road and accessing these communities we are utilizing the rehabilitation of that road. Another good example is the Derre area, where World Vision has done a number of developmental programs. By using the considerable network of extentionist staff which World Vision have established over the recent years, we are accessing target groups whom World Vision are already developing, and thus the donor money is penetrating into areas where it is primarily intended. Thus we can better utilize the work done in other spheres of rural development, but we stress that this is of secondary importance, behind scientific decisions based according to vegetation types we wish to test for honey production.

4. Implementation of the project.

In areas where we are utilizing the extentionist staff to access the community we describe the aims and goals to the extentionist staff in detail. This is working very well especially in areas such as Lioma and Tete where the extension officers are dynamic and pro-active. They are better equipped to explain the concepts of the project to the beneficiaries, and more importantly identify the most suited beneficiaries. A demonstration of a Jackson Horizontal Hive, the work required by the beneficiaries and the implementation of the project are given. This normally leads to a number of questions, which are answered then, to remove any confusion. A demonstration on the suspending of a J.H.H is done in a near by tree so all the beneficiaries can see the practical side of the theoretical explanation. We propose to use visual aids such as interactive posters with photographs showing all the stages of the project. Once the beneficiaries understand the proposed plan they are required to locate a site that they feel will be suitable to beekeeping in that area.

5. Role of Beneficiary.

The beneficiaries are required to do a number of functions in order to benefit from the project. All of these are easily done by both women and men and are not required to be done on a continuous basis but only periodically. The beneficiaries are required to choose a location for their apiary, make access to that apiary if none is available, help in suspending the hives in the trees. They are also required to clear the area beneath the hives of combustionable material, protect the hive from attacks by vandals and insects, record the date of entry of each swarm of bees, witness the harvesting of honey and sign for money received in payment for the honey.

It is of great importance that the beneficiary who signs his or her name receives the money in person, this is to avoid so called family acting as impostors and receiving the money illegally. The beneficiary is required to record the date of entry of each swarm. These records are vital to the management of the project as honey flows, and general beekeeping practices are run from these. Bees continue with the natural process of building a strong swarm and once flowers start producing nectar, will store honey. Once it is felt that a sufficient quantity of honey has been stored the management of the project goes to harvest the crop. The beneficiary is required to get dressed in protective clothing loaned for the duration of the harvesting. This is done so that the beneficiary witnesses the removal and weighing of honey from the hives loaned to them for the project. The beneficiary is paid per kilogram for the comb that the bees have produced.

6. Role of the project.

The project is required to do a feasibility study to identify the community that we will develop with this project. We must explain the project in its entirety to the people that will be involved and to those in the surrounding community that want to listen, as it is these people that the expansion of the project will incorporate.

The project is required to manufacture, transport and distribute J.H.H to the beneficiaries. We then place the hives with the beneficiaries in the trees of the chosen site. We then return periodically to monitor the progress of the bees in the hives and do any management of the swarms that is required. Once a crop of honey is ready for harvest the management removes the honey, weighs it and pays the beneficiary for the harvest. The honey is then transported to a regional extraction plant and the wax is roughly separated from the honey. The honey and wax are drummed and transported to a main extraction facility to be refined and cleaned. It is the projects concern to market the honey and bees wax. Thus the complicated and difficult areas of Apiculture are done by the project, while the beneficiaries do the maintenance of the apiary. This benefits both parties. It is to the beneficiaries advantage as they need not spend capital outlay to reimburse the project, are doing work that they already know and understand and in return are getting income from the sale of honey produced in their hives. The project benefits in that there is no external pressure from the community as the community is involved and the project can monitor and maintain the quality of honey produced. The potential of apiculture can be assessed.

7. Why is it a developmental project?

Rural development projects are aimed at increasing the standard of living within the members of a community, specifically in a rural setting. This can be achieved in a number of ways, be it by infrastructure upgrading, skills improvement, resource development and improved resource utilisation, economic up-liftment and so on. We aim, with this project, predominantly for economic development and cash flow, but also skills improvement, resource development and education. Secondary benefits are also realised with this program, specifically environment education and crop production. The primary and most obvious benefit is in the injection of cash to the rural community. Two main schools of thought exist on the method of injection of money into a community, namely the "trickle down effect" or direct injection. The trickle down effect is used with the money entering into the top structures of the society and allowed to filter its way into the community, down to the base level. Experience shows that little or no money trickles down, most evaporating at the top levels. Direct injection of cash is aimed at money entering at the base level of the community, where it is most needed. Money is paid to the villager directly, and thus enters at the base level. This is the system which we have adopted. This project improves this base level in a number of ways. The household food security is improved by:

1. Cash paid for honey produced, giving security in times when other produce is not available, specifically as honey will be cropped in late July and October allowing farmers to overcome periods when food production from conventional crops is low.

2. Cash at this time helps in alleviating pressure on farmers to leave their land to work for cash on other farms in order to purchase food.

3. Honey becomes another crop for the farmers, with no increase in land size and minimal labour (predominantly as the bees and the management of the project carry the main work load)

4. Honey increases nutritional value when eaten in the household. (note: please pay attention to appendix1 where producing honey of high nutritional value is discussed)

5. Honey is a high cash producer in relation to work required by the beneficiary. ZADP ( Zambesia Agricultural Development Program ) has stated that "the overall goal of the agricultural component is sustained improvement in household food security" (1997 Baseline Survey and performance report. Agricultural recovery and Development Program.) This project is in line with DFID's White Paper on development, the overall purpose of ZADP is to increase farm production and income sources for the rural poor. (ZADP,1998). The benefits of the agricultural component of ZADP are expected to reach 130 000 people directly in the form of better nutrition and raised incomes. This project will help to increase both directly.

8. Data Collection

The Carl Hayden Research Institute of Tucson, Arizona are designing, free of charge, a software package to collate all data on the project. This software will be used in a lap top computer. The honeycombs are transported to a regional honey processing plant and refined to export quality for sale, either in Mozambique or exported to other countries. This processing is the responsibility of Mel de Rupert Ltd. From this process a number of important data bases will be established. Questions such as:

· the time of harvest in the year,

· the quantity of honey produced in each hive and the apiary total,

· the attitude to the project by the beneficiary,

· the cost of transport,

· cost of production,

· Advantages to the beneficiary.

The honey and wax is then transported to a local extraction plant (in Mocuba initially) and separated and extracted into the component parts of honey and wax. The quality is maintained so that a world wide marketable product can be achieved. The honey is then exported. From this process a number of other questions are answered. Questions such as, Quantity of honey yielded from a nectar flow for a vegetation type, · comparative potential for honey produced in different areas, · cost of transport, · time to process, · easy of processing, · cost of packaging, · cost of transportation of finished product, · cost of exporting, · end price for product, · profit margins at each stage. From these two sets of data it is expected that an idea of the feasibility of honey production can be obtained, either positively or negatively. This is the goal.

9. Processing apicultural products.

The equipment used in the extraction processing of the honey and wax was developed by Rupert's Honey, South Africa. It has been designed and developed specifically for rural development in areas that have a low level of infrastructure. Thus it is possible to harvest and extract the honey in commercial quantities without electricity, so it can be drummed for transportation to a local centralized processing point and refined to export standards. The local traditional beekeepers in the communities will also be able to sell honey and bees wax to the factory. This is only done provided that the honey is still in the comb. This is due to the traditional beekeepers damaging honey in their extraction process. This is done by boiling a pot of water on a fire. A smaller pot with the honey inside is placed inside the water and the wax melts. This floats and can be removed once the honey cools. Regrettably this method leads to dirty, spoilt honey which has lost most of its nutritional, antibiotic and vitamin value due to the heat denaturing these products. This also leads to the honey having a high water content, due to the water vapor being absorbed by the honey, which is then unsuited to export markets. Many traditional beekeepers also add water to the honey and this obviously leads to poor quality. The purchasing of honey from local beekeepers is of great value to them as it creates a market. The wax is presently discarded as a waste product with no value as there is no market for bees wax in Mozambique. There is a small percentage used of about 3kg per annum by people who make shoes. This is used to weather proof the string used in stitching the shoes together. A smaller possible industry could be in the production of furniture polish from bees wax. The project is at present purchasing small quantities of wax from traditional beekeepers. There are only small quantities available because the beekeepers did not initially have a market as explained above. This has pleased the beekeepers as they now have a value added by-product. The project needs to purchase the wax in order to have it rolled into foundation. This is used in the frames of the hive to encourage the bees to build straight combs and so that they have a basis on which to build. Essentially the wax that is purchased from the beekeepers is given back to the community in the form of foundation, so it is a capital outlay but at least the beekeepers benefit, instead of importing foundation from South Africa.

10. Possible difficulties for project.

The project possesses a number of advantages, but a few disadvantages may arise. The project is community based and the success relies on the continued participation of the community. If the community that the project is targeting does not want to be involved then obviously the project will fail. Petty crime is also a problem, especially theft of equipment necessary for the success of the study.

The roles of both the project and beneficiaries have been highlighted above. If either party inefficiently conducts any of these steps then the project will fail. For example one of the roles of the beneficiaries is to guard against fire. If the hives are burnt and the hives lost the project cannot work.

A possible problem may occur with insect attacks, most notably with ants or parasitoid wasps attacking the bees. These pests have been monitored by both the project staff and the beneficiaries. The project supplies the necessary expertise, but the beneficiaries have to monitor the situation. Of possible concern are the recent viral and bacterial diseases that are sweeping the world apicultural industry. Most notable is the Varroa virus which has decimated most major beekeeping areas in the world in the past decade. Most of the bacterial and viral diseases were thought to be absent from the African continent. Recent studies have shown isolated cases of Varroa in the Southern Africa. A closely monitored situation exists in South Africa, believed to be contained, but it is a potential disaster to apiculture on the African continent if it spreads. Another possible problem for the project could be the human factor. This can be vandalism, theft or the destruction of bees through sabotage. To combat this we rely heavily on good working relations with the communities so that the project and community can combat these problems together. By being community based we hope to alleviate the external pressures that most private apiculture has, similar to incorporating surrounding communities into nature reserves, like the "camp-fire" programme in Zimbabwe. By increasing the economy of the family we may cause socio-economic problems.

11. Overall benefits to the Republic of Mozambique.

These benefits encompass socio-economic, cultural, environmental, educational and foreign exchange. The obvious socio-economic benefit will be to make the rural environment more attractive economically, and thus obviate the migration to urban squatter camps. Rural depopulation is a phenomenon of 20th Century Africa that has caused untold misery. Any method of improving the sustainable yield of the Miombo woodlands of Africa without degrading the environment must be welcome. The most interesting cultural benefit stems from the belief by many rural African peoples that the spirits of their ancestors lived in the traditional log and bark family beehives. The loss of this traditional occupation has left refugee families re-settled after the war, feeling uncomfortable. The communities have always protected their beehives throughout East Africa for this reason. Thus the restoration of bee keeping has been enthusiastically welcomed from Niassa down to Inhambane Provinces.