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Manicaland Correspondent
FARMERS in Manicaland province have called on Government to provide extension services to bee-keepers to facilitate training and enhance honey production and marketing. In separate interviews with The Herald, the farmers said there was need to also decentralise the services of the Beekeepers Association of Zimbabwe to incorporate farmers who had been doing bee-keeping as individuals.

Mr Simon Manjiche, a bee-keeper in Imbeza, Penhalonga, said bee-keepers in the province were struggling to market their honey as the only viable market for unprocessed honey was in Harare.

“Bee-keeping is a lucrative business, but we are failing to locate markets in the area and as a result we travel to Harare to sell our unprocessed honey,” he said. “We used to sell it to Manica Produce but ever since its closure we have had nowhere else to sell our product locally.”

Mr Reason Sibanda, another bee-keeper in the province, appealed to Government to intervene by facilitating the provision of training and extension services to bee- keepers.

“Government needs to facilitate the decentralisation of the Beekeepers Association of Zimbabwe (BKAZ) as it is mandated to source for markets for bee-keepers,” he said.

“If we have the services of BKAZ in Manicaland, it will enhance our production.”
Mr Sibanda said due to limited training, bee-keepers in the province still used dangerous methods to extract honey.
He said most bee-keepers had downscaled or suspended operations to minimise the costs associated with marketing their products.

Another farmer, Mr Perserverance Chimwena, expressed concern on how climate change continued to impact negatively on beekeeping and honey production.

“Changing weather conditions have resulted in honey production taking a dip,” he said. “Environmental stresses are making bees more susceptible to pests and diseases. This is decreasing the quantity produced as well as the quality.

“As farmers, we have had to find our way around environmental stresses that are becoming recurrent due to climate change. Hot weather is unfavourable and we have had to adjust by extending our days of harvesting from May to July in a bid to extend production into the cold season.”