Beekeepers from Gereshk and Kandahar teach nearly 20 Afghan students how to maintain a bee farm during a course in Gereshk, Helmand province, July 26-28. The course was hosted by a local beekeeper with the support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, British Royal Army and Danish Army.

Beekeeping is the latest buzz in Helmand province, Afghanistan, after a three-day course during which nearly 20 Afghans learned the perks of farming bees rather than poppy.

The course, hosted July 26-28 in Gereshk, took place at the province’s master beekeeping teaching farm.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, British Royal Army and Danish Army have been helping Afghans learn new agricultural skills such as beekeeping in Gereshk, Helmand province. A local beekeeper hosted a class, July 26-28, to teach other Afghans how to maintain bee farms.

Attendees received lectures by Afghan bee farmers from other provinces. These farmers had previously received training on bee farming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, British Royal Army and Danish Army.

“The farmers wanted to have bee hives to be able to generate income,” said Don Welty, a senior agriculture advisor with the USDA, and a native of Stafford, Va. “They all know about the impact that bees and honey can make because it is mentioned in the Quran.”

The idea of an alternative crop like bees that would not be harvested and sold by insurgents appealed to coalition forces and the local government. The program began in April.

“This is a great program to help the farmers diversify their farming programs and make additional income for their families,” Welty said. “The goal is to have every farmer own five hives and generate up to $1,000 per year. This would generate much more money than poppy. Once the farmers have alternatives then it is possible for them to move away from poppy.”

The course covered several topics related to beekeeping, including hive preparation, pollination benefits, swarm capturing and queen bee management. The session ended with a hands-on practical application of beekeeping for attendees.

At the end of the seminar attendees were given a starter hive, basic beekeeping supply and a set of beekeeping clothes, Welty said.

Honey from northern Afghan cities such as Jalalabad is sometimes available in the Gereshk bazaar and locals hope the demand will increase with local production, said Abdulla, the master beekeeper at the course.

Coalition forces and local government officials hope to have local farmers begin producing their own honey in weeks to come and plan to provide more beekeeping seminars in the future.

DVIDS
Story by Cpl. Katherine Keleher

The master beekeeper passes out a section of buzzing bee hive during a women beekeeping training program graduation March 27. Photo by Spc. Luisito Brooks

A blossoming new program organized by the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team-North is creating a buzz and giving area widows and divorcees a much sweeter future.

But the buzz being generated around the program is more than just a figure of speech, as the Iraqi women involved are learning the ins and outs of beekeeping.

On March 27, a graduation ceremony was held for 25 Iraqi women who completed the beekeeper training program here.

“These women are the heads of the household, many (because of) the sectarian conflict,” said Mary-Denise Tabar, the public diplomacy and women’s affairs advisor for ePRT-North. “The program aims to train local rural women on the theoretical and practical applications of basic beekeeping.”

ePRT-North is embedded with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division whose subordinate battalions provide security for the team, allowing them to work safely on projects such as this in the area north of Baghdad including Tarmiyah and the city of Taji.

Taught in four hour sessions over a period of six days, the course covered the proper care of bees and techniques to harvest their honey.

“The women were chosen by the non-government organization, Rafedain Foundation who know the community and the women who need it most,” explained Tabar.

The master beekeeper shows off a comb containing hundreds of buzzing bees during a women's beekeeping training program graduation ceremony March 27. Photo by Spc. Luisito Brooks

Interest in the beekeeping course proved to be extremely high, explained Tim Lowery, an agricultural specialist with the ePRT, and having received more applications than there were available seats, the team is already planning more courses for the future.

Upon completion of the training each women received their own active and healthy beehive, containing thousands of the buzzing insects, along with all the necessary equipment to operate it.

In total, the entire beekeeping training program including the 25 beehives for the graduates, tools and supplies cost approximately $23,450, said Tabar.

Each beehive houses anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000 bees, that on the average can produce about 15 to 20 kilograms of honey a year. Bees also provide a valuable resource for local farmers, pollinating their crops.

“For most of these women, this is how they earn income for their households,” said Tabar. “They can sell a kilo of honey anywhere from $20 to $50.”

During the graduation ceremony, family and friends looked on as the new beekeepers were called forward receive their certificates and beehives, and showed their support for this accomplishment with rounds of applause.

Honey has brought these women dealing with great adversity together, and with this new skill, it will reduce their image as a burden on their family or society.

One graduate was so overwhelmed that she was brought to tears during the ceremony.

“A women told me that she was so thankful for everything and can remember having bees as a child,” said Lowery, “She said that she would raise the bees like they were her own children.”

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Luisito Brooks

In an effort to increase agricultural productivity and boost economic capacity, 450 families throughout Afghanistan’s Panjshir province were supplied with training and materials to operate and manage their own honey production businesses.

The program, sponsored by the province’s agriculture ministry, began in July 2008 with the delivery of 900 bee boxes called “lower deep supers,” or brood chambers, complete with a queen bee and a starter colony.

Initially, starter colonies produce only enough honey to survive, but as the colonies continue to grow, they produce excess honey that can be harvested. This natural progression requires an “excluder” for the queen, “deep upper supers” for the bees and additional training for the beekeepers.

“The deep uppers are where the bees store the excess honey that will be harvested and will allow the queen growing room for the colony to keep them from swarming to another location,” said Greg Schlenz, a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative to the provincial reconstruction team. “The training is necessary to ensure understanding in bee colony development and use of received materials.”

Local residents said they had no recollection of a substantial honeybee population ever existing in the province. Abdulla Shah, a lifelong resident of the valley, said Dara district had some honeybee hives prior to the team’s arrival, but doesn’t know what happened to them.

“I remember seeing the hives and the farmers selling honey in Dara about five years ago,” Shah said. “But, I don’t remember them anywhere else in Panjshir, not even as a child.”

Bees are a vital component in pollination, a process by which the male cells of a plant are carried to the female cells of another, which enables fertilization. This process is necessary in agriculture, because 80 percent of plant fertilization occurs by animal interaction. Without pollination, plants can’t bear fruit or reproduce.

“Pollination was the No. 1 reason for bringing bees into the province,” Schlenz said. “The secondary reason was the honey production.”

A single beehive can pollinate a three-mile radius and produce more than six pounds of harvestable honey a year. In Panjshir, the price of honey is between 300 and 1,000 afghanis per kilogram, or about $6 a pound. This translates into about $42 per hive per year, a substantial supplement to the average Afghan farmer’s income of about $400 a year.

Abdullah, a farmer in the province’s Khenj district, is a participant in the beekeeping project. His farm has grown from two to five hives in just one season, and he recently harvested almost 18 pounds of honey.

“This has been very good for my family,” Abdullah said. “I have the honey for my family, and the bees have increased the pollination in my fields.”

The beneficiaries of the starter bee farms were handpicked by the Panjshir director of agriculture through consultations during community council meetings. The recipients had to meet stringent criteria and attend four weeks of training, which included biology, species, identification, raising and caring techniques, maintenance, pollination, production and harvesting, and basic business and marketing skills.

The project not only benefits the ecosystem, but also builds capacity through cooperation. Only two honey extractors are within each of Panjshir’s seven districts, with beekeepers having to share the equipment. Through this process, beekeepers share experience, knowledge and information.

“It’s a win-win project where, agriculturally, we are seeing an increase in fruit, vegetables, wild flowers, clovers, alfalfas and other plants,” Schlenz said. “Secondly, the farmers are earning an extra income they probably never thought would occur from bees.”

DVIDS
Story by Capt. John Stamm

An advisor from the Afghan Department of Agriculture demonstrates the techniques necessary to managing bee colonies in Afghanistan’s Konar province.

Many Afghans are subsistence farmers who teeter on the edge of malnutrition or starvation every year.

In Afghanistan’s Konar province, one of the most violent provinces in the country, an American provincial reconstruction team is working with the Afghan government on a unique solution to help feed its people: bees.

Experts from the Konar Department of Agriculture maintain a number of small beehives throughout Konar Valley and are working to expand the reach of the pollinators. They hope not only to breed more bees, but also to build more beehives to be distributed among more farmers, officials said. With the help of the Konar PRT and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Afghan government has been distributing sugar to existing beehives to increase their population.

The Afghan government has provided more than 300 pounds of sugar to local beekeepers and farmers, officials said. Government officials expressed the hope that with pollination help from the bees in the spring, crop yields in the immediate area might go up by at least 10 percent.

The idea is not as far-fetched as it may sound. Beekeeping is a $9 billion industry in the United States, according to the University of Georgia’s Web site. Bee hives are bought, sold and rented out across the country.

In Canada, if a blueberry farmer hopes to increase profit, he reportedly can get a return of $41 per every dollar spent on renting bees for pollination, and an apple farmer can get upwards of $192 per dollar. The Konar government hopes to get a similar return for its investment.

Through pollination, bees have been known to increase crop yields by as much as 25 percent. Other plants, such as almond trees, must have a pollinator to even produce.

Bees also produce raw materials for the Afghan people to trade and barter. Honey is an obvious product of successful hives, and is especially valuable in Afghanistan because it is one of the few agricultural products that does not have to be stored in cold temperatures. Honey can be easily consumed, sold or exported to nearby provinces.

Beeswax — a primary component in candles, cosmetics, polishes and pharmaceuticals — also is a valuable commodity, officials noted.

DoD
By Navy Lt. j.g. James Dietle
Special to American Forces Press Service
(Navy Lt. j.g. James Dietle serves with the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team.)

One hundred fifty bee boxes were delivered to Bazarak District Sept. 17 as part of an overall $180,000 province-wide project conducted by the local government and the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team to help both the local economy and boost agricultural production.

Seventy-five families in each of the six lower districts throughout Panjshir will receive two of the $200 bee boxes, training, a centrifuge and protective equipment. Bazarak is the fourth district to receive the bees.

“We worked together and were successful in bringing the bee project to Panjshir,” said Hashmat-Ullah Enyat, the Provincial Director of Agriculture. “We’ve already delivered the bees to Anaba, Rokha, and Shotul districts, today we do Bazarak and we’ll do the last two districts soon.”

“In agriculture, the bees are most necessary. They help all of the agriculture grow faster,” said Mir Weis, the beekeeper overseeing the distribution of the bees. “The bees are the main ingredient in the pollination process and they are always good to have around the crops. Successful and plentiful pollination is crucial to getting a good strong crop.”

Mr. Gregory Schlenz, a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative with the Panjshir PRT, said he agrees with Weis and has been working hand-in-hand with the PRT’s civil affairs team and the province’s director of agriculture to get the bees into the province.

“In my travels I have not seen many native bees in Panjshir. Just today I was standing in a field of clover that should have been abuzz with bees—yet there were none, and that’s not good,” said Schlenz. “These bees will provide better pollination for all of the crops in Panjshir to include the vegetables and the numerous fruit orchards that the Panjshir Province is famous for.”

The main requirement was that the boxes went to the neediest people in each district, said Enyat.

“Many of the provincial line directors and district governors worked together to make a list of the 75 most needy families in each district capable of maintaining the bees,” he said

“We hope that these families were trained well, and hopefully this project will encourage them to do more for themselves and also for the growth of the economy,” said Ihnsaanullah, the head of Panjshir’s Provincial Council

Each colony is expected to produce approximately 10 kg. of honey after the first year. This means that Bazarak District could possibly see 1,500 kilos of honey once they start to produce.

During the first year there will be no product because the bees are still building their colony, said Schlenz.

“In the second year the beekeeping families will start to get the benefit of the extra honey to either eat or sell,” he said. “and that’s when the economic impact of the bees will start to be seen.”

The average price of a kilogram of honey in Panjshiri shops runs anywhere from 10 to 15 dollars. This means that there is the possibility of bringing anywhere from $15,000 to $22,000 per year into a district’s economy once the hives start to produce.

“This is just the beginning of a profitable new industry in Panjshir that will have an immediate impact on the families … and [have] a continuous tangible impact on the local economy,” said Capt. Jayson Stewart, Panjshir PRT’s director of operations who represented the PRT at the event.

The continuous tangible impact is what government officials are hoping for.

Four hundred and fifty families throughout the province will receive the 900 bee boxes. But the director of agriculture hopes that the benefit will not end with those 450.

“Once these families have worked with the bees for a year, they will be able to teach others how to work with them as well,” said Enyat. “This a great success story for both the agriculture sector and the economy in Panjshir.”

CJTF-101
Written by Air Force Capt. Jillian Torango