A community based farmer group established by Advance Africa in Northern Uganda benefits with skills in apiary and derives household income from various bee product sales.
Under “Action for Livelihood Enhancement in Northern Uganda (ALENU)” Advance Afrika has provided skills in beekeeping management and sales of apiary products for rural communities. One community- based farmer group located in Oboko Village, Pamora Upper Parish, Atego Sub-County in Nebbi district comprising of 25 members (15 F, 10 M) received technical trainings in establishing a social enterprise. The group named Dikiriber FG selected apiary enterprise and received production materials including 125 KTB modern hives, smokers, gumboots, gloves and bee suits.
To date, the group has earned about UGX 5,000,000 million from the sales of honey and created value addition through other bee related products like shoe polish, jelly, propolis, candles and soap. The profit is re-invested in production processes to increase their harvest and improve quality. During the 2021 Women Celebration, the group show cased their products and was recognised by the district leaders, who pledged to support and boost their production.
The project intends to support the group with more booster funds to scale up production, do better branding and packaging. Soon their products will be certified by Uganda National Bureau of Standards as it meets the required market standards. “There is huge demand and potential for bee-keeping and apiary value addition because of health benefits and low costs in production. It is a good opportunity to increase household income for rural communities”, recommends Ms. Daphne Egwar, Project Coordinator of ALENU Project.
The ALENU project contributes to the flagship Development initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) supervised by the Office of the Prime Minister and funded by European Union to consolidate stability in Northern Uganda, eradicate poverty, under-nutrition, strengthen the foundations for sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development.
