Organising Beekeeping Training Workshop and Access to basic Information
Status: 
Time needed:
Two weeks or more
Step:
2
There is need to build the capacity of farmers through facilitation of access to training, and technical advice and support as well as information access. The project will train and empower the project beneficiaries to effectively engage in modern beekeeping, using modern equipment and technologies. This will be achieved by undertaking the following activities:
a) Organize a training workshop on bee keeping basics, and how to use beekeeping equipment and protective wear.
b) Organize a training workshop in appropriate methods for harvesting, processing, storage and post-harvest handling of honey and other apiculture products in order to maintain high quality products.
c) Produce and distribute at least 200 copies of a farmers' pocket guide on beekeeping.
d) Produce and distribute at least 100 posters on beekeeping.
e) Collect and provide to farmers relevant information, technical advice and support for increased production.
f) Identify and invite apiary field extension staff and subject matter specialists to carry out farmer training and provide advice to farmers.
The above activities will strengthen and build farmers capacities to engage in beekeeping practices. Your kind advice, information search, development of fact sheets on beekeeping is welcome.
The East African Beekeepers Equipment Ltd (EABE) here in Kampala have been contacted to supply Sustainable Livelihoods International Uganda with langstroth beehives complete with foundation combs and a super box.
The same company (EABE) Ltd will carry out the first training workshop on beekeeping basics and how to use the equipment. The workshop is scheduled for 18-19 June 2009 in Butikiro village.
It is anticipated that the farmers will be supplied with the beehives then.
The scheduled training programme will be posted herein as soon as it is approved.
Thank you,
Marsha Denis.
Hi Marsha,
Uganda has good potential for production of honey, and all villages in the region can benefit from beekeeping. You could upload relevant information on this thread so that it becomes easy for the other villages on nabuur to get interested and started on beekeeping.
Basic information could include the following:
- investments required
- income possible
- contact details of organizations involved in supply of inputs like technology, equipment, etc.
- means of financing
- arrangements for marketing
In case a group of villages decide to get involved, it would be a good idea to form a co-operative organization for the production of honey, where all participating villages would be members. This will provide greater benefits in terms of enhanced marketing capability, and increased leverage on financing. As a result, the entire region can benefit from this activity.
Vijai
Hi everyone,
Wakitaka village has some good sources about beekeeping. here are some of them
http://www3.telus.net/conrad/toc.htm
check out discussions here
http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/wakitaka/project/task/find-various-exam...
there's some important info about setting up beekeeping
I had somewhere the list of beekeeping contacts in Uganda, will look for it and post it.
Besides, there are some other Nabuur villages in other countries that work(ed) on beekeeping, maybe you could contact them to exchange info and experience?
Sonja
I was wondering if it is possible to create separate groups on nabuur for specific issues. Since a large number of issues are common to all villages, a lot of duplication and 'reinventing the wheel' can be avoided by having all resource information centrally located inside each resource group. This will result in faster access to critical information, which in turn will lead to faster decisions, execution of tasks, early results. Failures can be avoided resulting in savings of time and money.
As an example, a convenient navigation for any visitor to nabuur looking for information on beekeeping could be as follows :
- open nabuur home page
- login as a neighbour
- locate the 'Groups' link and click on it
- in the Groups page locate 'beekeeping' and click on it
The result - all available resources on beekeeping as available on nabbur is before you.
At present the navigation for specific resources is through the search route. However, this route is not interactive.
The other route is to post on individual villages which is used by the village representatives, without realizing that the desired information may be already available on some other villages on nabuur. Hence, 'reinventing the wheel', starting all over again.
Through the 'Groups' route, neighbours and villages may need to interact on specific issues related to the subject, and this interaction can also become a part of the resources, so that similar questions need not be asked again in future because all the answers are already available at one common place on nabuur.
Perhaps, this feature is already available on nabuur, and has not been visible to me, in which case maybe someone could help me locate the links.
Vijai
Vijai,
You are 110% correct. I hope someone listens to you. Most of my postings do not appear on the "unread" page for some reason.
Hi Vijai,
Long time ago when I became a neighbour I noticed that the villages were reinventing the wheel over and over again, searching for the info that was already available on nabuur pages. And it was not only me, many neighbours complained about it, and nabuur has tried some ways to get the resources available on one place, but it didn't work as expected.
Now we have groups that we can use for that, but since the neighbours themselves are expected to post the resources there, it still doesn't work properly. Sometimes people have no time or just forget to post resources there... Another problem is that other neighbours who would need such info are completely unaware of existence of such pages... or of villages that deal with same/similar issues (I believe that exchange of experiences between villages is of utmost importance).
I will try to post soon the agriculture resources I have, and to structure them under Sustainable Agriculture group. What do you think? And how do you suggest we inform all the villages to have a look there if they need such info?
Sonja
As promised, here's the list of people in Uganda involved in beekeeping
Hi Sonja and Ken,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Yes, the 'Groups' section on nabuur does exist, and why it has escaped my attention till now (even though I am a new member) is probably because as a neighbour I am not required to navigate THROUGH the 'Groups' route to operate on nabuur. I believe that, like me, most neighbours also navigate straight to the concerned villages for their transactions. In the process, the 'Groups' section is completely bypassed, and all activity is registered only on individual villages, even though it may be repetitive on many villages.
Some villages may find a solution to some critical issues, whereas other villages may still be groping for a solution, completely unaware that another village in the same region has already found solutions to these problems. This is because the solution providers did not imagine that they are required to post identical advice on a dozen villages so that all villages with the common problems can benefit together as a group.
It will also not be appropriate to expect neighbours to post at many different places, since this will create too many loose ends, and will not be user-friendly.
A possible solution could be provided by changing the navigation route to be followed by the neighbours.
PRESENT SYSTEM:
- villages A,B,C have common problems X,Y,Z
- villages A,B,C post problems X,Y,Z each on their own pages. Hence X,Y,Z each appear 3 times on nabuur
- a neighbour may see village A only, and post solutions to X,Y,Z only on the page of village A
- villages B,C are unaware of the solution, and continue to suffer
- the neighbour is completely unaware about villages B,C and so cannot help.
PROPOSED SYSTEM:
- villages A,B,C have common problems X,Y,Z
- Groups X,Y,Z are created on nabuur, if not already existing
- villages A,B,C each post problem X on Group X
- villages A,B,C each post problem Y on Group Y
- villages A,B,C each post problem Z on Group Z
Hence-
- Group X has registered problem X of villages A,B,C
- Group Y has registered problem Y of villages A,B,C
- Group Z has registered problem Z of villages A,B,C
Neighbours are thus required to interact ONLY at Group X for problem X, Group Y for problem Y, Group Z for problem Z. Neighbours are not required to post each comment at several places. Once a solution is provided to problem X, all villages A,B,C benefit together for problem X. And so on for problems Y and Z.
This is possible only if the focus of activity by neighbours is shifted to the Groups and not at the pages of the villages.
Since the number of neighbours on nabuur is fairly large (over 20,000 at present) it will not be possible to make individual requests. The changes will need to be made at an administrative level on the nabuur website. I can think of the following suggestions:
- the pages of the villages can be made only for profile, information, news, etc.
- THE FACILITY OF POSTING ON VILLAGE PAGES CAN BE REMOVED
- the village pages can be edited, or updated only by the village representative or facilitator
- ALL POSTS BY THE VILLAGE AND NEIGHBOURS COULD BE ALLOWED 'ONLY' ON THE GROUPS PAGES, and not on the village pages
Through this process, interaction on all issues will necessarily shift to the 'Groups' pages. And thereafter, hopefully, no more of 'reinventing the wheel' at every village.
The benefits:
- all villages will benefit together
- the magnitude and severity of the common problems will be highlghted better
- the focus will shift away from the 'village by village' approach
- the focus will shift to problem solving on a wider scale, so that a large number of villages will benefit from each solution 'at one shot'
Vijai
Hi Vijai,
There is an ongoing conversation here
http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/nabuurcom-website-development/project/tas...
about website redesign and I think you should post your feedback and ideas there, so that all the neighbours and Nabuur staff can read it and react.
I'm not sure how the idea of working on an issue instead of a village/project would give results, since the villages are all different, thier problems, cultures and circumstances are different, and it's almost impossible to come to a "one size fits all" solution. I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than that. Nabuur is trying to solve the problem for a while, so your ideas are more than welcome.
Sonja
Sonja, thanks for providing the link to the appropriate thread on nabuur. I am copying all this there. Do participate with your suggestions.
Vijai
Dear Neighbours,
Thank you so much for the positive discussion and in particular the beekeeping ideas.
We shall mostly importantly share with you, the outcome of the training and other outputs through the report soon.
Thank you,
Denis Marsha
Dear Neighbours,
I am pleased to provide you with a summary report of the Smallholder Beekeeping Training workshop as attached herewith in.
Some of the outcomes of the workshop included: beekeeping practice skills and management knowledge imparted; establishment of two apiaries, as well as facilitation of 30 beehives to 30 out of the 50 farmers.
The full report will be provided to you as soon as it is finalised.
We are very gratified to all the parties that have been involved, offered a lot of advice and support. We thank Nabuur, Butikiro neighbours and colleagues for the advice and support.
We look forward to your continued partnership.
Kindest regards,
Denis Marsha Kabuuka
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to attach herein the full report of the beekeeping training workshop.
Should you have any comments, please do not hesitate sharing your ideas and advice with us.
Thank you,
Denis MARSHA
An idea for storing information, etc. might be to create a LIBRARY. When it is opened, there is A-Z. If one wants info on "bees" go to "B" and find it. I have taken this idea from www.dirtdoctor.com.
Hi,
With all due respect, I just returned from Kasese, Uganda where I was a troubleshooter and teacher for a beekeeping project there. Some people had Langstroth or modified Langstroth hives. There were tremendous difficulties to overcome with extracted comb beekeeping. We finally decided that the KTB was the way to go. Have you considered this?
--
Lloyd Ziegler