OBSERVATIONS ON APICULTURE AND MELIPONICULTURE IN TANZANIA

Transcription

1 OBSERVATIONS ON APICULTURE AND MELIPONICULTURE IN TANZANIA Irfan KANDEMİR Department of Biology, Ankara University, Ankara, TURKEY Omar BABAN Temel Petek Inc., Istanbul, TURKEY Angela MWAKATOBE TAWIRI-Njiro, Arusha, TANZANIA Tanzania has great beekeeping potentials. Apiculture and Meliponiculture were experienced as the local people called stinging and stingless beekeeping. Here you can find the story with pictorial presentation in details. In 2006 We conducted an observational field trip to understand the beekeeping potential and possible ways to promote and increase the rural development in Tanzania. During the trip Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of United Republic of Tanzania provided enough knowledge and experienced guide for us. During the trip Mr. Pauline MPUYA from MNRT Beekeeping Division guided us through out the trip in different areas in Tanzania (Moshi, Arusha, Tabora, Kigoma, Kasulu and Kibondo). Without distinction in all the sites visited, we observed more or less similar type of beekeeping practices except one place namely the Apostles of Jesus Monastery (Tingery-Arusha) where nice modern langstroth hives were practiced instead of traditional logs. We tried to organize this beekeeping article into three sections. In the first section Tanzanian beekeeping potential was described. Secondly, types of beekeeping in Tanzania were explained for both Sting-less (Meliponiculture) and Stinging (Apiculture) bees as the beekeepers say. In the last section solutions and recommendations were suggested for the development of both beekeeping types in Tanzania. 1

2 Honey bee (stinging, Apis mellifera L.) diversity in Tanzania: Based on the current literature three different honeybee subspecies were distributed in Tanzania (Ruttner 1988, 1992). On the coastal area Apis mellifera litorea, inlands Apis mellifera scutellata and on the mountainous parts Apis mellifera monticola. These are based on the records in the literature, and more detailed scientific experimentation needed for clarifying the presence of different subspecies. On the other hand in terms of stingless bees, we observed different wild colonies in nature and saw different species but we have no expertise on stingless bee species. Even we observed different species were kept in boxes to strain honey from those. We believe there are several species of stingless bees in Tanzania which is the second scientific study has to be carried out in order to find the stingless bee diversity. Beekeeping Potential in Tanzania: United Republic of Tanzania has a vast geography and warm climate suitable for both beekeeping practices. The fore mentioned two elements (geography and climate) are the most important constrains of beekeeping in general. Especially in the southern hemisphere, beekeepers should use the advantages of these characteristics. The weather conditions directly affect all kinds of beekeeping practices. Thus in terms of beekeeping conditions, Tanzania has great advantages for its potential. Tanzania has two kinds of bees, stinging and stingless bees. Stingless bees are distributed only tropical areas like Southern America, India, Thailand and the other countries close to tropics. This is the second advantages, having different kind of bees for the beekeeping sector. Most of the beekeepers want to keep stingless bees as well because they are freely owned from the forest and they do not get stings means easy manipulation but the production is not so high. Stingless bee honey is more valuable than stinging honey but amount wise the total income from stinging honey is much more than the stingless. The green belt (forests) provides enough nectar or pollen for the beekeepers but the use of this potential is much less than the amounts offered. Although the estimated number of colonies in Tanzania is around 9 million, the official web site of FAO ( indicated that the number of bee colonies in Tanzania is around 2.7 million and the honey production is around 27,000 tons. According to the FAO statistics, Tanzanian 2

3 beekeeping is the second largest sector in all Africa after Ethiopia. I believe the potential is much higher than those in the statistics, as we informed by the beekeepers. The replenishment of the empty colonies by the feral honeybees is one of the indications of the presence of feral colony potential. The estimated number of honey bee colonies in Tanzania could reach to 9 million (Kihwele et al., 2001). However the FAO statistics are about the manageable colonies and modern hives. So potential is huge but, only very little percent of this potential is currently in use. Beekeeping practices (Apiculture and Meliponiculture) in Tanzania: As we mentioned above, there are two type of beekeeping; Stingless and Stinging. The former is preferred to the latter in terms of management and having no sting. Most beekeepers are afraid of working with stinging bees, because the bees are so aggressive and vicious. From our observations and during honey bee sample collections I (IK) learned this ferocious behavior from several hundred stings. I (IK) do not blame them though the bees acquired this behavior from beekeepers. One thing should be kept in mind that bees in modern hives have mild temper than the bees in feral or primitive hives. So by the time beekeepers and bees know each other, than the bees get milder and milder. So this only works with modern way of beekeeping. In Tanzania, more than 90 percent of hives are primitive hives and the beekeeping practice is primitive. The most common type of hives are bark, log, reeds, pot and skeps as primitive hives and the others like Tap-bar hive (semi-moveable frames). During the trip, we came up with modern hives as well and of course the honey production is much more that those in primitive hives. So the first thing for beekeepers is to switch to modern way of beekeeping in order to have calm bees and to have a high honey and wax production. This is somehow limited due to financial shortage (poverty). Besides stinging beekeeping, Stingless bees provides incredible amount of background pollination along with honey and wax. Thus stingless beekeeping (Meliponiculture) has an important additive effect on the natural resources. The other side of the medallion, on the other hand, is the destruction of the natural resources due to bee hunting and hive making from the forest. 3

4 Tanzanian beekeeping has a great pressure on the forests. Forest is destroyed during harvesting by the forest fires from the primitive smokers or mishandling the traditional smokers. Agroforestry and beekeeping should have a mutualistic relationship, however what is seen in Tanzania is that the relationship is a kind of parasitism. Beekeeping is benefiting from this relationship, but not the forest ecosystem. Not all the systems stay unchanged forever, so sooner is the better to take measures to protect the nature. The same is true for the bees, from all the conversations I made with beekeepers, there is a great potential of feral colonies in the forest. This could be right at the moment but this does not mean that it will stay forever. Although there is no winter loss in Tanzania, there are a lot of bee losses due to mishandling and bad beekeeping practices. Modern way of beekeeping is the only way to keep the bees for a long time. As I informed from the beekeepers that there is a great deal of absconding after harvesting, and results in colony reduction at the end of the season. Then the beekeepers try to catch the bees again after a certain time. Why not keep the bees all the time by using modern hives and modern equipment. Again the answer is the same no financial power to modernize the processes. Developing beekeeping sector by modernization has profound effect on the developments of the forestry and natural resources. The impact of modernization on Forestry and Natural Resources: Beekeeping has a great pressure on the forestry system. Debarking, cuttings are big problems for the forests. Logs and barks are used for making primitive hives for beekeeping. At the beginning maybe the clearing of the forest would not be realized but by the time it could create a big problem when the resources are diminishing. Before getting worse, taking a strong measure is one of the solutions but this could be hard to put forward. On the other hand it may be much easier if beekeepers educated and supplied with modern beekeeping equipments. Then it will keep beekeepers away from the forests, at least decrease the effect of beekeeping pressure by debarking and cutting for hive production. All modernization processes need financial support, and we are sure all beekeepers in Tanzania are aware of what should be done to prevent the adverse effects of beekeeping. 4

5 Honey from Stinging and Stingless honeybees: Honey is one of the important nutrients for all. However the quality of honey is decreasing year by year due to residues in the honey. Tanzania has advantages of having no residues in the honey (from the chemical composition analysis see below) because the honey produced is an organic as long as it is inside the hive. The value in the foreign market is high if it is processed and bottled in hygienic conditions. There is no chemical treatment and no one knows about the diseases, so this is really important issue for the foreign market. A modern honey processing plant is a must for producing a good quality honey. The prerequisite for this is again to change the way of beekeeping to a modern way. Then one can use modern hives with movable frames and also honey extractor to extract the honey with hygienic conditions. Modern hives and movable frames make beekeeping easy and feasible in terms of high honey production and for the survival of the colonies. People are thinking that they are utilizing only 10% of the beekeeping potential. Thus we can deduce from the FAO statistics that actually Tanzanian beekeeping sector can produce 10 times higher that the figures in the statistics. Chemical composition of stinging and stingless honey and pollen analysis: During field trips we also collected different honey samples from TWIRI-Njiro, Mzinga-Kasulu, Manyoni-Miombo, Manyoni-Thickets, and two honeys from Kigomo. There are some differences between honey samples from tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. The obvious difference was detected in HMF amount. The number of HMF from Tanzanian honey is higher than the honey from other regions. Other than this, the honey from stinging bees was free of antibiotics (results from chlaromphenicol, 12 sulpha group antibiotics, streptomycin, AOZ, AMOZ did not show any detectable residue) starch and naphthalene (Table 1). Besides stinging bee honey, two stingless honey samples were also collected from Arusha and Manyoni. The results of the honey composition analysis were given in Table2. The main difference between stinging and stingless honey is the water content of the honey. Stingless honey has more water content than the stinging honeybee s honey. The stingless bee honey is also not contaminated with chemicals or antibiotics. It is assumed to be natural with respect to the analysis based on two samples. There is no starch and naphthalene content as well. 5

6 Table 1. Chemical composition of honey samples from stinging bees Parameters Units TWIRI Mzinga Manyoni Manyoni Kigomo Kigomo Njiro Kasulu Miombo Thickets 1 2 Water Content % Free Acidity meq/kg Diastase Number DN HMF mg/kg Invert Sugar % Sucrose % Conductivity ms/cm Glucose % Fructose % Total Disaccharides % Fructose/Glucose Glucose/Water Higher saccharides % Table 2. Chemical composition of honey samples from stingless bees Parameters Units Arusha Manyoni Water Content % Free Acidity meq/kg Diastase Number DN HMF mg/kg Invert Sugar % Sucrose % Conductivity ms/cm Glucose % Fructose % Total Disaccharides % Fructose/Glucose Glucose/Water Higher saccharides % Honey samples from TWIRI-Njiro, Manyoni-Miombo and Manyoni-Thickets has high amount of Scrophulariaceae pollen in the pollen analysis. The second highest amount of pollen detected from the same locations: Lamiaceae and Poaceae. In Kigomo-1 sample can be called unifloral honey due to Poaceae dominance (>80%). Similarly this family is the highest in Kigomo-2 honey sample as well. In Kigomo-2 sample the second highest amount of pollen were determined from Oleaceae (Table 3). According to the pollen analysis the stingless honey sample from Arusha has the highest pollen amounts belonging to Oleaceae family. The floral richness is higher in Arusha than manyoni. Main pollen content in Manyoni samples came from Myrtaceae. So the honey from Manyoni can be called as unifloral honey because the main pollen source from Myrtaceae family is more than 80% of the total pollen content (Table 3). 6

7 Table 3. Pollen analysis of honey samples from both stinging and stingless bees. Stinging bee honey Stingless bee honey Honey samples Pollen Analysis Honey samples Pollen Analysis TWIRI-Njiro 14.5% undetermined 50.7% Scrophulariaceae 21.7% Lamiaceae 7.2% Poaceae 2.9% Brassicaceae Arusha 26.8% undetermined 53.2% Oleaceae 8.9% Protecea fam. 3.2% Eucalyptus sp. 2.6% Plantaginaceae Mzinga-Kasulu 22.8% undetermined 34.7% Fabaceae 27% Poaceae 21.9% Salicacae Manyoni-Miombo 8% undetermined Manyoni-Thickets 14.5% undetermined Kigomo-1 Kigomo % undetermined 11.4% Oleaceae 42% Scrophulariaceae 21% Lamiaceae 10% Poaceae 10% Gramineae 4% Rosaceae 45% Scrophulariaceae 18% Poaceae 10% Lamiaceae 6% Fabaceae 6% Rosaceae 82.3% Poaceae 4.7% Chenopodiaceae 4.4% Oleaceae 39.7% Poaceae 23% Oleaceae 6.3% Acacia dealbata 5.6% Salicaceae 4.8% Chenopodiaceae Manyoni-Miombo 3.3% undetermined 80.2% Myrtaceae 16.5% Eucalyptus sp. Problems and Recommendations: Here in the last section I would like to emphasize on advantages and disadvantages of the beekeeping in Tanzania and try to give recommendations accordingly and what should be done in the future: Advantages: It would be better to start with promising side. Firstly, Tanzania has a good floral sources (forests: miombi, tichcets) for the bees and for the beekeeping equipment (for making modern hives). Secondly the climate is mild along the year and this result in all year beekeeping without winter break. Thirdly, there is no winter loss, two seasons without migratory beekeeping. Besides natural resources and climate, Tanzania has a great beekeeping potential in terms of having two different beekeeping types (melliponiculture and apiculture) and lastly Tanzania has an incredible amount of feral colonies in the natural reserves as all the beekeepers and officials said. 7

8 Disadvantages: On the other side of the medallion, beekeeping is still in progress with a traditional way. No modern beekeeping experience, no modern beekeeping equipment, difficult transportation and access, honey and wax processing is traditional and mostly not hygienic and lastly there is no modern honey and wax processing plant. What should be done? The first thing is to utilize the advantageous items and turn them in to modern beekeeping practice. Right now traditionally, beekeepers are utilizing only 10 % of it. In order to maximize the benefits from the advantageous parts, modernization is a must for Tanzania. This process will be a long process; modernization will never be completed in a short time period. In Turkey modernization is started at 1940 s and still in progress, now in Turkey more than 95% of the hives are modern hives and beekeeping is experiencing with a modern way and the progress still continuing (Kandemir 2003). During the trip I understood that Tanzania has other priorities more important than beekeeping for their people like infrastructure, infectious diseases, education and etc. So the beekeeping should need other financial sources like donor foundations and investors. Donor foundations from the world could possibly support a good beekeeping development project if aimed to combat poverty and provide a way of sustainable development that reaches to the beekeepers. Investors on the other hand other possible sources to awaken the beekeeping sector. New regulations should be taken to decrease the bureaucracy by the Government and should make it easy to invest in Tanzania. There is a good example in Mwanza on the coast of Lake Victoria, there are several investors doing business with Nile Perch and exporting fish fillet to Europe, Russia and other countries. So there is a big development in that areas, why not in other parts like: Tabora, Dodoma, Tanga or any other place in Tanzania and beekeeping looks like a good sector to give a shot. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism for their kind invitation. We would like to thank to Temel Petek Inc for financial support during the trip. We also thank to Aslı Elif Sunay from Balparmak for honey analysis. 8

9 PICTURES and their legends: There are three honey bee subspecies distributed in Tanzania. Apis mellifera litorea is distributed on the costal region and on the islands, A. m. monticola on the northern mountainous part and A. m. scutellata on the central and western part of Tanzania. 9

10 Log hive hanging from tree with a wire. Two different types of hives hanging from the tree branch to prevent honey bagger to reach the combs and honey. 10

11 Tanzanian tap bar hives standing on a platform set between two trees. Type of modern apiary: hives were set on the tree trunks in Forestry and Beekeeping Division, Forestry Training Institute, Olmotonyi-Arusha. 11

12 Dr. Kandemir is collecting honey bee samples from a Tanzanian top bar hives in TAWIRI (Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute)-Njiro. Modern apiary with hanging stands. Individual hive was set on the hanging wired platform for securing the colonies from enemies in Tingery-Arusha. 12

13 A group of Tanzanian beekeepers, we shared knowledge on Tanzanian beekeeping, their problems and possible ways to overcome the difficulties. Hive stands and modern hives in one village in Tabora-Tanzania. The hives look like nucs are stingless bee colonies. 13

14 A log hive tree, five of the logs were hanging down from the tree branches. The height of the tree is around meters. The trunk is divided into two and inside is carved. After preparing the log hive two pieces were tight to each other and hanged in the forest to catch swarms. 14

15 Tree bark is pulled off to make bark log hive. The pulled bark is attached on one side along detach side. Bottled stinging honey from Mzinga-Tanzania. 15

16 Dr. Kandemir investigating the stingless bee colonies in tree trunks or branches collected from the forest to get the stingless bees into modern boxes to keep them in their apiaries. A fenced stingless bee boxes and colonies secured from the enemies. The honey collected from these colonies is small but worth to do it. 16

17 A stingless bee colony Brood chamber in the stingless bees and the infrastructure of the colony. 17