African reference laboratory (with satellite stations) for the management of pollinator bee diseases and pests for food security
Project Brief/Background
Project Title
African reference laboratory (with satellite stations) for the management of pollinator bee diseases and pests for food security
Project Number
DCI-FOOD-2013/330-416
Period
23 Dec 2013 – 23 Dec 2016
Objective
To enhance the contribution of bees and other pollinators to food security and improved livelihoods in Africa.
Purpose
To improve bee products and pollination services through reduced incidence of bee diseases and pests, enhanced markets access, and bee health institutional environment.
Partner(s)
AU-IBAR and icipe
Resources
Over three years, the EU will contribute a total of €13.1 million. This funding is split into two parts:
- €4.8 million is funding two components to be handled by AU-IBAR (African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources):
- to enhance awareness on the honeybee health and create a conducive environment for enhanced bee disease control, and create access to markets, and consumer safety.
- to strengthen capacity of beekeepers/farmers' federations, RECs and NARS on bee health management systems and policy options
- €8.3 million is funding another strategic two components handled by icipe:
-
- to help establish bee health facilities for innovative technologies and provision of pests risk analysis baselines and benchmarks
- to validate bee disease and pest management and develop modules with efficient field based diagnostic tools
Geographical Coverage
Regional initiatives have resulted in facilities for West (satellite stations in Liberia and Burkina Faso), Central (satellite station in Cameroon) and East Africa (reference laboratory in Kenya and satellite station in Ethiopia). The programme has a continental coverage. It works at national level with AU Member States.
For the first result on bee health facilities for innovative technologies and provision of pests risk analysis baselines and benchmarks established and the second result on validated bee disease and pest management modules with efficient field based diagnostic tools developed, the project is using several sites in 22 locations to record the status of African bee health in bee colonies in 6 countries in relation to vegetation, pollen and species diversity, to collect data for developing future prediction models. These locations are in the participating countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Madagascar).
Issues Addressed by the Project
About 80% of all Africans depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture provides 70% of Africa's full time employment, one third of total GDP, and 40% of total export earnings. Thus, Africa's overall economic performance is inextricably linked to the performance of its agricultural sector. Agriculture is therefore crucial for reducing hunger and poverty across the continent and agricultural growth is achievable through the increase of agricultural productivity. Agricultural growth and crop productivity largely depend on bee pollination services that have ecological and agricultural values. The economic ecologic value of pollination is estimated at US$ 120 billion annually while the economic agricultural value for pollination is estimated at US$ 200 billion in global agriculture.
The need to increase agricultural productivity is reflected in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union's New Partnerships for Africa's Development (AU-NEPAD), which aims to achieve an annual growth in production of 6% by 2015.
The African Union's Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is leading the NEPAD-CAADP programme for the livestock sector. AU-IBAR has developed a strategic plan for the period 2015–2017 that will allow the realization of the animal resources sector goals.
The Bee project is consistent with CAADP's Pillar I (Sustainable Land Management), Pillar III (increasing food supply, reducing hunger, and improving responses to food emergency crises) and Pillar IV (agricultural research and technology development and dissemination).
The Bee project is aligned to the European Consensus on Development which articulates the EU development policy and focuses on the attainment of the MDGs, highlighting food security as an integral thrust in rural and agricultural development that also assures sustainable management of natural resources.
The project is in line with the EU Food Security Thematic Program (FSTP) for 2011–2013. The FSTP recognizes the importance of investing in international public goods, in particular in pro-poor, demand-driven research and technological innovation as well as capacity development and South–South and South–North scientific and technical cooperation, as a way to address food security challenges in developing countries.
The project is consistent with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) efforts to strengthen veterinary governance and improved notification of animal diseases, including those affecting bees.
Problem and Institutional Analysis
Bee diseases and pests do not respect borders, therefore requiring local, national, regional and continental approaches whereby basic regulatory frameworks and guidelines for their control should be coordinated, harmonised and promoted across Africa. Similarly, information pertaining to bee health (such as effects of pesticides, food safety concerns due to chemical residues in honey, other bee's products or implications in pollination of plants), are global problems and, as such, should be dealt with at the continental level. The development of a central reference laboratory (CRL) for bee diseases and pests in Africa is informed by and built on icipe's experience with earlier beekeeping initiatives conducted in East, West, North, South and Central Africa with farmers' associations. These initiatives aimed at strengthening and modernising research and development in African beekeeping offer an opportunity for income diversification for rural resource-poor farmers, while stimulating positive natural resource management that maintains the integrity of ecosystems. Africa continues to lose its natural resources due to increasing human population pressure, agricultural expansion, climate change, landscape degradation and urbanisation. This, together with poor management of natural resources and the lack of appropriate or harmonised policies, has led to irreversible loss of pollinators' biodiversity.
The serious decline of honeybee populations in Europe and the USA commonly referred to as the colony collapse disorder (CCD), has alarmed governments, conservationists and the private sector. The possibility and effects of a similar decline in Africa would seriously harm the livelihoods of millions of rural resource-poor farmers, as well as commercial farmers. Therefore, the proper conservation of honeybees in Africa must be ensured so that colony losses experienced in other parts of the world are not repeated in Africa. In addition, there is need to protect the genetic diversity represented by the different African wild honeybee populations. Fries and Raina reported very low level of American foulbrood disease in large parts of Africa. However, the recently confirmed presence of the varroa mite, brood diseases and Paenibacillus larvae spores in SSA are likely to compromise honeybee health and consequently honeybee productivity in this region of the world. This has raised concerns that these highly devastating mites, and probably so far undiagnosed honeybee diseases, could be widespread in Africa. Two miticides, fluvalinate and coumaphos, introduced in 1987, have been effective in Varroa control but there is now widespread resistance to both.
At institutional level, the lack of resources to analyse products, certify for export, and identify bees and their diseases and parasites are often mentioned as major constraints. Infrastructure to monitor, certify and enable trade in honey and beeswax is also lacking in the majority of African countries. Inappropriate and/or lack of policies protecting the industry and preventing the introduction of bee diseases and parasites is another missing link that needs to be addressed in the short-run.
There is very limited notification and reporting of bee diseases to the AU-IBAR and OIE and this is also a major constraint to the design of proper policies, strategies and specific programmes. The limited notification and reporting of bee diseases may be attributed to the low capacity of national veterinary institutions to detect bee diseases (the bee sector is often out of the scope of veterinary services as it lies either in the ministry in charge of environment or that of crop productions), the lack of legislative frameworks for bee disease control and the lack of awareness on the importance of bee health.
Project Strategy
The overall strategy of the project is focused on developing linkages between participatory bee health management (PBHM) and beekeeping technology, pollination services, market access and bee health policy and legislation at both national and regional levels.
By linking them to productive beekeeping eco-systems (forest and cropland) in the participating countries, icipe and AU-IBAR will motivate communities to maintain bee health and conserve pollinators' biodiversity, protect the environment, as well as improve food security and economic well-being in the regions. The strategy is outlined below.
Project Approach
An implementation modality has been adopted by icipe and AU-IBAR through which support is given to policy options and to value chain development for bee health, improved pollination and marketplace development for rural communities. The central goals of this approach are food security and livelihood improvement, which result in ecosystem conservation and enhancement of pollinators' biodiversity. This is being achieved through technology input for non-chemical pesticides development, pollination of crops and improved production infrastructure for the beehive products, as well as provide human capital development through training and capacity building.
This project is designed to strengthen the management of national beekeeping stations and the beekeepers through presenting technologies for controlling pollinators' diseases and pests, and developing tangible incentives through spillover benefits such as beehive products, to assure community collaboration in bee health management. The project's fundamental approach is based on close integration of investments into productive bee health infrastructure, bee biodiversity conservation and human and institutional capital, in a way that reduces pressure on the crops and forest pollination services. The design and implementation of this project is pragmatic and fast in its impact to capture and maintain the interest of the beekeeping communities, farmers and forest conservators and to secure the future of the rapidly dwindling bee biodiversity in Africa.
Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries are rural and urban poor, small and large-scale producers, farmers, livestock owners and entrepreneurs who demand effective solutions to technical and policy problems affecting honeybee health and, consequently, pollination services and human health, given that honey is a health food. Bees also pollinate forage plants, therefore contributing indirectly to milk production. The opinions of these stakeholders will help shape the quality of output from the project, especially as the project proposes to involve them at the early stages of the bee health programme.
Other beneficiaries are technical staff and decision makers of national, regional and continental institutions and research centres involved in policy development, design of intervention strategies and support tools, and implementation of specific activities. Indirect beneficiaries are local communities benefitting from the beehive products marketing and pollination services activities.
The research agenda is determined by the grassroots actors that largely include beekeepers/farmers, community based organizations (CBOs), the private sector, NGOs, extension services and scientists working together. The central theme of the icipe/AU-IBAR task force is "Putting bee health and pollination services at the centre of research for the beekeepers/farmers and end-users". This approach ensures a direct technology uptake by the producer groups and brings science to build on the indigenous knowledge of the beekeepers/farmers and rural CBOs, and reduces the knowledge gap between technology generators and users.
Outcomes/Objectives
The Overall objective is to enhance the contribution of bees and other pollinators to food security and improved livelihoods in Africa.
Purpose
The purpose of the project is to improve bee products and pollination services through reduced incidence of bee diseases and pests, enhanced markets access, and bee health institutional environment.
Stakeholders
AU-IBAR
The Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is the African Union's technical organ for livestock issues. AU-IBAR is coordinating the implementation of results three and four given its institutional position, its mandate and specific politically-endorsed role in the execution of the CAADP. In its strategic plan 2014-2017, AU-IBAR has a major programme of enhancing Africa's capacity to conserve and sustainably use its animal resources and their natural resource base. The objective of this programme is to catalyse the development of policies and actions that will lead to the sustainable use and management of animal resources and the natural resource base on which they depend. Activities under this programme will contribute to improved awareness by policy makers and the general public. It also spells out clearly the role it will play in strengthening the capacity of African countries to conserve and sustainably use bees for food security and through the development of policies and regulatory frameworks and the promotion of actions to implement them.
icipe
The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) is leading and coordinating the implementation of results one and two.
RECs (EAC, ECCAS, ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC)
Given their lead role in the implementation of the CAADP agenda and their coordination and harmonization role of regional livestock matters, the Regional Economic Communities are crucial in the implementation of the project and also beneficiaries of the programme. They will on one side play an active role in project implementation, using their convening power at regional level, and will be instrumental in mainstreaming bees for food security into national and regional agricultural investment plans.
The Members States
To ensure sustainability and ownership, the project is being implemented in close collaboration with state actors. All the ministries and other public good providers that intervene in the animal production sector (including in the design and enforcement of regulatory frameworks, required for the preservation of bees) are involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the proposed action. Priority is given to states actors in direct implementation, with non-state actors providing technical backstopping and capacity building where and when necessary.
Stakeholders of the Apiculture Value Chain
There are a number of beekeepers' associations and other related apicultures associations across the regions that aim at promoting beekeeping. Beekeepers associations are guardians of a vital worker bee. They strive to represent the interests of their Members on issues that impact upon their profitability and sustainability. They act as lobbying group for the voices of beekeepers at national level to influence national policies and also as platform to transmit knowledge and technological innovations.
Results and Activities
Result 1: Bee health facilities for innovative technologies and provision of pests risk analysis baselines and benchmarks established
Bee health facilities in East (Kenya and Ethiopia), West (Liberia and Burkina Faso), and Central (Cameroon) Africa will have an impact on 15,000 beekeepers/farmers. A total of 25,000 beehives with accessories will be distributed to produce 375 tonnes of honey and 40 tonnes of bees wax and related spill over products (royal jelly, propolis) on yearly basis. Beehives will be utilized for pollination services of 7,500 hectares of commercial agriculture with an estimated yield increase of 15-25% and for rejuvenation of natural forests and wild flora for natural fodder production and bio-prospecting of wild harvest.
The target countries have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:
- having a presence of Development Partners Groups, RECs, SROs, and farmers federations with regional mandate, and with different agro-ecological conditions in Francophone and Anglophone countries;
- hosting AU-IBAR/icipe bee keeping and animal health projects financed by IFAD, UNDP-GEF, Biovision, CORDAID.
This selection will enhance synergies and complementarities between the present bee health programme and on-going bee keeping and pollination initiatives and will improve regional cooperation to develop regional and continental policies and legislation aspects.
Activity 1.1: Refurbishment of one research and training centre in Kenya (Bio-safety level-2)
The research and training centre in Kenya is hosted by icipe and serves as:
- a reference laboratory for training of scientists from various parts of the continent; and
- a hub for novel research and biotechnology in honeybee and other pollinators' diseases.
It is also a centre of excellence for bee health research in Africa. Its management is overseen by a Project Steering Committee (PSC) chaired by AU-IBAR, with members from participating countries, farmers' federations and selected European scientific organizations. The centre develops management strategies to cope with and overcome pests and diseases in bees and provides a service to satellite stations in terms of monitoring pest and diseases presence and spread.
To implement our work, the centre has the following primary objectives:
- Conduct surveillance and diagnosis of bee diseases and pests.
- Analyze pesticide residues in honeybee products and investigate semiochemicals for bee pests as a complementary approach to pesticide treatments.
- Study the mitochondrial DNA variability in the various honeybee races and develop DNA fingerprinting and gene sequencing tools.
- Record the impact on absconding and migration pattern of bees due to effects of diseases and pests.
- Breed African honeybee queens for various traits such as disease resistance, royal jelly production, pollination services, and honey and propolis production.
- Investigate the functional ecology of floral traits, the dynamics of pollen transport, competition for pollinator services, and patterns of specialization and generalization in plant–pollinator interactions.
- Monitor the impact of climate change on pollinators and pollination services for agricultural and forest eco-systems.
- Assist AU-IBAR to raise awareness and execute training of the beekeepers/farmers, and formulate/implement policy and legislation regarding pollinators/bee health in the five project countries.
Activity 1.2: Refurbishment of four research and development satellite stations with regional mandate in East (Ethiopia), Central (Cameroon) and West Africa (Liberia and Burkina Faso) (Bio-safety level 1)
The satellite stations are, among other things:
- Conducting surveillance and diagnosis of bee diseases and pests.
- Recording the pesticide hazards and risk assessment of chemical pollution in the honey and hive products.
- Building the capacity of farmers' federations and national beekeepers in pollination services and all aspects of managing bee diseases and pests for beehive products (royal jelly, bee pollen, propolis, wax, bee venom and brood food) development and livelihood improvement.
- Promoting the rejuvenation of forests (and thus an improvement of habitat quality, as the bees will provide pollination services).
The regional government in each country where a beekeeping satellite station is based has provided laboratory space for the station. An MOU has been signed with the relevant ministry and the department in each country. The project is refurbishing and equipping these satellite stations to level 1.
Activity 1.3: Equipping five research facilities with diagnostic tools for surveillance and detection of bee diseases in African colonies for undertaking bee health research
The project has developed a standardized surveillance network assessment tool (SNAT) to analyse the African colony losses in collaboration with the Bee Doc group in Europe (Germany-Halle; Sweden-Uppsala; France-Avignon; Switzerland-Bern and) and in addition, the Netherlands-Wageningen.
The SNAT analysis will allow the countries to be classified into different categories: those with:
- a very good level of compliance with the standards of a good operating system (1 system);
- an upper intermediate level of compliance (2 systems);
- a lower intermediate level of compliance (1 system); or
- a low level of compliance (1 system).
The purpose of this activity is to:
- Review the general principles that constitute the basis for accurate and strategic surveillance;
- Draw conclusions on perspectives and requirements of future surveillance of honeybee colony losses;
- Propose a surveillance framework to be used by African scientists to allow them to implement a relevant and effective system;
- Provide future applicants with useful recommendations and assist in the design and improvement of surveillance systems.
These studies will dynamically harmonize surveillance procedures to allow an accurate estimation of colony losses within and throughout participating African countries. In addition, taking advantage of the active procedures to be established, the pilot project will support the implementation of prevalence studies on priority diseases/pests of honeybees (that use shared epidemiological indicators to estimate incidence following the harmonized procedures). In particular, after establishing the proper characteristics of Varroa destructor and other pests, it is considered crucial to assess the infestation levels using consistent protocols throughout the participating African countries to get comparable data on populations of the pests before the dry season.
Activity 1.4: Setting up model apiaries at selected NARS/national beekeeping stations and farmers' fields to demonstrate the application of intervention logics and scaling up hive products and pollination services at each project site
The project has signed agreements with the national beekeeping stations or equivalent entities in the Ministry of Livestock or Agriculture in each project country. The large apiaries will be set up at the beekeeping station as well as in the community fields for training and demonstration. The project staff will teach the beekeepers the basics of modern beekeeping. Taking this course will help beekeepers to learn more about the process of beekeeping and the importance of bee health and its effect on pollination services. Interacting with experienced beekeepers will help the other beekeepers to learn more about the practical aspects of beekeeping and bee health. The project will obtain beekeeping supplies and procure all the materials beekeepers will need to set up the beehives. This will typically include the different parts of the hive (brood chamber, queen excluder and super, top cover and bottom board), a hive tool, smoker, protective suit, veil helmet, gloves, bee feeder and food (a mixture of yeast, icing sugar, soya powder or pollen etc., in water). The project will select the location for siting each beehive, taking into consideration the availability, within a vicinity of 10 square miles, of flowering vegetable crops, fruit and other trees, weeds and bushes, to act as a pollen source for bees. If no natural water source is available, the beekeepers will set out a pan of water. A location that has a windbreak, like bushes or trees, will be selected. This will keep beehives away from view and shelter the apiary against wind.
Activity 1.5. Develop screen houses at NARS/national beekeeping stations for demonstrating and training Farmer's Federations in the use of various bee species for pollinating food crops
The project is building greenhouses in each of the five participating countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Liberia), at beekeeping stations or agricultural research institutes and at icipe training apiaries. The greenhouses will be located where it gets maximum sunlight. The first choice of location is the south or southeast side of a building or stand of shade trees. Sunlight all day is best, but morning sunlight on the east side is sufficient for the plants. Morning sunlight is most desirable because it allows the plant's food production process to begin early, thus maximizing on the growth. The greenhouse will also provide the proper environment for growing plants from pollination experiments and training given to the beekeepers/farmers.
A screenhouse with pollinating bees will provide more practical methods of hybridization of two desirable parent species of commercial crops with better traits. This method has been used in South Africa (Cilliers et al., 1996). This procedure involves the planting of self-compatible female and male parents in specially prepared breeding plots in the screenhouse, into which honeybees, stingless bees or other bee pollinators, are introduced to effect cross pollination and higher yields. The bees and stingless bees will be kept outside the screenhouse and their entry provided using a plastic pipe from hive entrance into the screenhouse. This is because, apart from bumblebees and carpenter bees, the other bees feel uncomfortable inside a screenhouse.
Activity 1.6. Establish one marketplace for processing, packaging, and trading of honey and hive products in each participating country
The project is using a two-pronged approach to restore bee health in the environment and food security: The first is by addressing the causes and impacts of ecosystem degradation on the pollinators. The second is by introducing through capacity building, a bee health management strategy and alternative sources of income through the development of marketplaces for honey and hive products. This involves the construction of one marketplace in each participating country (Ethiopia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Kenya) for honey production, packaging and marketing from healthy colonies. Training of trainers and the beekeepers in hives management, queen rearing, hive products harvesting techniques and handling of the honey comb will enable the beekeepers' products to attain the necessary quality for meeting the market standards. Further training in the management of the Internal Control System (ICS) for organic certification will enable the producer groups to gain organic certification and access to premium international markets. The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) and the Threat Reduction Assessment Tool (TRAT) will be used to monitor the management impact under this project. Biodiversity monitoring will be carried out through surveys of stingless bees, honeybees, and other pollinators at the selected project sites.
Result 2: Validated bee disease and pest management modules with efficient field based diagnostic tools developed
Activity 2.1. Mapping of bee biodiversity and health factors using species distribution model and dynamic vegetation modelling
In this project, different explanatory spatial variables such as changes in floral species and abundance across different altitudinal gradients, and physical variables such as landscape, temperature, rainfall, etc. are recorded and used as explanatory variables to assess the Apis mellifera races and vegetation data. The main objective is to explore abundances of Apis mellifera races to physical variables and spatial environmental information from different African countries to provide a more realistic map of suitable vegetation habitat of honeybee races in the East, Central and Western regions of Africa.
The following ecological issues will be addressed:
- Relationships between physical and spatial environmental variables in the distribution of African honeybee races;
- Habitat characteristics associated with African Apis mellifera races in different African countries;
- Comparison of physical and spatial variables as predictors of African Apis mellifera abundance; and
- Plant–pollinator interphase.
Activity 2.2. Mapping of bee diseases and pests distribution in modern, traditional and feral bee colonies, pollen source and spatial analysis of land use and other environmental factors
This activity is intended to describe the distribution of diseases and pests in bee colonies across the landscape gradients in the participating countries, based on the surveillance results. It also portrays the pollen and propolis sources, the nature of land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics in frontier settings to investigate the causes and consequences of bee diseases and pests, and LULC by mapping and landscape patterns and dynamics and evaluating these in the context of bees–humans–environment interactions. Details of every apiary inspection and laboratory diagnosis carried out by the icipe reference laboratory and satellite stations will be held on the secure pages of the icipe website. This will enable the production of accurate and up-to-date information on the distribution of notifiable bee disease and pest data. These are generated with reference to the 10 km Ordnance Grid System, details of which can be found in any atlas or Ordnance Survey map. The image gallery will also have many useful pictures that should help the users to identify pests and diseases in the participating countries.
Activity 2.3. Investigating behavioural mechanisms of African honeybees' tolerance against the invasion of Varroa mite, and other pests and brood diseases
This study is being conducted on the existing breeding stock in the participating countries—Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Liberia. In the breeding stock, each generation is verified to select the quality queens that have a progeny of workers with useful traits such as gentle behaviour, less swarming tendency and high honey production. The selected queens are used for propagation of daughters through artificial insemination using healthy drone semen. Hygienic behaviour of the breeding stock is used as a criterion of disease resistance in this stock.
The following behavioral traits and their mechanisms will be investigated in the bee colonies:
- Evaluation for hygienic behaviour;
- Adult bee population in the breeder stock;
- Mating and oviposition behaviour;
- Swarming behaviour;
- Endocrine behaviour of the disease- and pest-infested colonies;
- Defensive behaviour of the honeybee.
Activity 2.4. Developing effective methods to detect pesticide hazards in the beehive products and identify and standardize mites-related volatile components
Semio-chemicals research: In this activity, we are identifying volatile components that act as synergists; comparing volatiles from host and non-host brood; checking the response of various compounds; and verifying the attractant and arrestant behaviours at various volatile levels. We are testing the selected semiochemicals on mites to disrupt their behaviour. The project will create a slow release formulation for sustained flooding/attracticide activity over different periods of time. This research will lead to the development and deployment of in-hive devices, and ultimately to field-testing these devices on phoretic mites inside full size colonies. Eventually, we will release a package of practices for the beekeepers to control varroasis in the apiaries.
Pesticide hazards: In this activity, we are developing effective methods to examine chemical poisoning in bees that is caused by poisons affecting the nervous system, leading to lack of co-ordination of the body functions, and death. The poisoning affects the alimentary system, the consequences of which are starvation and infestation by pests and diseases. Poisoning can originate from naturally occurring sugar sources (such as pollen and nectar) and manmade supplemental sugar preparations that inadvertently become toxic. The results of natural substance poisoning are presence of disabled or dead bees under the offending plant, or bees behaving strangely outside the hive.
The project is applying several techniques (HPLC, GC-MS, LC-MS, etc.) to measure pesticide hazard and risk assessment in bee and bee products. Some substances are difficult to analyze in gas chromatography (GC) due to thermal instability or chemical polarity. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a good method for analyzing a broad variety of different pesticides in plant extract, water and foodstuff samples. Pesticide traces will be investigated in honey, pollen and bee cuticles. Pesticide traces in honey will be isolated with liquid/liquid extraction after homogenization. Pesticide concentrations in pollen will be extracted after mechanical crushing. Pesticide traces in cuticles will be recovered following a solvent-immersion of the bee. Ethyl acetate seems to be sufficiently miscible with water to allow good penetration into the plant cells and its polarity is sufficient to extract the more polar pesticides. But it is not completely miscible with water, hence after extraction no extra partition step is required, and the water is simply removed by excess sodium sulfate (Van der Hoff and van Zoonen, 1999).
Activity 2.5. Evaluating bee health hazard and risk through effective technologies such as morphometrics and DNA finger printing and vitellogenin levels
In this activity, we are undertaking a hazard identification process by assembling a list of organisms associated with honeybees. The hazard list used in this risk analysis will employ the OIE 2003 bee genetic material risk analysis list as a starting point. Currently, six bee diseases/pests and parasites are present on this list: acarapisosis, American foulbrood (AFB), European foulbrood (EFB), varroasis, and small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) and Tropilaelaps mite infestations. The project will collect samples from the five countries to monitor the diseases and pests in the apiaries.
Activity 2.6. Developing of plant based bio-pesticide for bee diseases and pests and production of over 200,000 pieces of bee pest and disease control products for Farmers' Federations/beekeepers in 5 countries in Africa
In this activity, we are evaluating plants through random screening to develop bio-pesticides using hydro-distillation and solvent extraction methods. The plant extracts will be evaluated for effectiveness against selected honeybee pests and diseases. The safety of the effective plant extracts will be determined by testing their toxicity against adult bees. The effective and non-toxic plant extracts will be formulated and tested for control and prevention of the respective bee pests and diseases under semi-field and field conditions. The effective plant-derived bee pest and disease control products will be protected by patent and registered with relevant bodies.
We shall undertake the production of at least 3 effective plant-derived bee pest and disease control products. Over 200,000 packaged pieces of bee pest and disease control products will be produced and provided to beekeepers/farmers in the 5 countries in Africa. Commercialization of the plant-derived bee pest and disease control products will be initiated in partnership with the private sector and rural communities will undertake commercial cultivation and processing of the pest control plants.
Result 3: Enhanced awareness on the honeybee health and conducive environment for enhanced bee disease control, access to markets, and consumer safety created
For beekeeping to be transformed from a subsistence activity to a business, the primary producer must have access to a market chain that is reliable and efficient. In order to provide outlets for honey once domestic markets are saturated, export opportunities need to be developed. This results area will addressed some policy and legislative issues, disease control and trade constraints and will include the following activities:
Activity 3.1 Organize effective multi-stakeholder partnerships and mechanisms for the development of policy, institutional and market options for bee health and pollination services for food security
This consists of establishing a functional continental partnership platform/network for coordination and advocacy for honeybee health and other pollinators. Evidence on bee health and pest management, risk analysis generated in result 2 will be used to sensitize the policy makers and stakeholders. It will further consist of identification and detailed analysis of key stakeholders followed by intensive consultations and establishment of a partnership platform with governance organs, based on experiences from the Alive platform, the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) and the African Fisheries reform mechanism all driven by the African Union.
Activity 3.2 Develop policy and regulatory frameworks for sustainable bee health, apiculture and pollination services at national, regional and continental levels in tight connection with OIE and RECs
Guidelines are being developed for formulation/review of national, regional and continental honey bee policy and regulatory frameworks to reduce the incidence of pest and human activities on bee colonies, improve honey production and consumer safety and veterinary governance. The platform established in Activity 3.1 activity one will serve as a forum for consultation to ensure active participation of all key stakeholders in the formulation of policy and regulatory frameworks
Activity 3.3 Carry out environmental impact study on bees and pollination services
Intensification of agriculture with the subsequent increased utilization of pesticides have resulted in some areas in the decline of honeybee and other pollinators colonies. This activity consists of assessing and documenting the impact of agricultural intensification on bees and pollination services, and developing guidelines for farm level environmental impact assessment of agricultural activities on bee and pollination services. Through the technical committee, the methodology, matrix and data to be collected and used for the impact assessment will first be agreed on and selected countries representing the five regions of the continent chosen to undertake the study.
Activity 3.4 Enhance capacities for timely collection, analysis and sharing of accurate sanitary information; this activity will consist of strengthening the capacity of National veterinary services for early detection, timely notification/reporting, prevention and control of bee diseases
This activity consists of building the capacity of officers in the directorate of veterinary services in all MS for identification and diagnostic of bee diseases, for early detection and timely reporting of bee disease outbreaks as part of the disease reporting assignment of the directorate of veterinary services. Two to three experts from each country will be trained as trainers (TOT) on bee health and disease, and will be in charge of rolling out the training at country level to national experts. To accommodate staff turnover in the national veterinary services, two sessions of both the TOT and national training will be held in year 1 and year 3 of the project. The activity will complement the Vet-Gov project in rolling out the ARIS 2 through which disease will be reported. It is envisaged that additional computers will be provided to MS to strengthen their disease reporting systems.
Activity 3.5 Strengthen Africa's participation in standard setting organizations (OIE and Codex Alimentarius) on standards setting process for bees and bee products
This will first consist of establishing/strengthening the technical subcommittee that advise African delegates on SPS issues related to bee and bee products, science-based standards and certification, and support the participation of some African delegates for common position to ISSOs meetings.
Activity 3.6 Identify market constraints and opportunities for honey and hive products and investment opportunities of bee products and pollination services
While apiculture presents an opportunity for small producers, for many African beekeepers the potential to create a significant livelihood from selling honey remains out of reach. Some of the issues facing small honey producers are similar to those facing other small commodity producers, while some aspects are specific to the honey trade. For beekeeping to be transformed from a subsistence activity to a business, the primary producer must have access to a market chain that is reliable and efficient. To provide outlets for honey once domestic markets are saturated, export opportunities need to be developed. Under prevailing market conditions, this will only be achievable if African honey can be competitive at national levels and meets the requirements of the consumers but also be sold as a specialty product. Under this activity, issues of profitability of the honey business, exploiting the potential of high value niche products and medicinal values (EU market as an example), fair trade certification, organic certification, trading and supply efficiency, marketing strategies and others will be assessed and recommendations made.
Result 4: Capacity of beekeepers/farmers’ federations, RECs and NARS on bee health management systems and policy options strengthened
The capacity of beekeepers association in facilitating access to trade and in the implementation of policy and strategies has been recognized as a challenge for improved bee health and sustainable honeybee development. This result area among others, consists of enhancing the capacity of beekeepers associations, to actively participate in policy and strategy formulation and implementation, and facilitate access to national and regional markets. The following activities are planned under this result:
Activity 4.1 Establish or strengthen producer organizations for input supply management and cooperative marketing
These activities aim at supporting national beekeepers associations and establishing or strengthening regional beekeepers associations to increase/promote local market linkages, export market development and promotion, regional and international institutional linkages. In the scope of this activity national beekeepers associations will be strengthened and supported to be effectively operational. This activity also aims at improving the capacity of beekeepers associations to master the honey production chain in order to meet the requirements of the value chain actors.
Activity 4.2. Enhance the capacity of beekeepers associations to acquire information and utilize improved bee health technologies/innovations
Under this activity the capacity of beekeepers associations will be strengthened to collate, analyze information and data for production, lobby and evidence-based advocacy. This will be achieved through training workshops, exchange visits, study tours, establishment of information sharing platforms.
Activity 4.3. Develop a database on pollination services and bee health research and development outputs
This activity aims at creating a one stop shop were all information and data from research on bee health and pollination services in and for Africa are collated and synthesized in public information briefs and made easily accessible to producers, professionals and bee health scientists.
Activity 4.4. Strengthen the capacities of NARS and RECs to analyze the value chain of pollination services and priority beehive products
Among the challenges faced by bee production in Africa are the lack of adequate skills by farmers to manage bees and handle hive products, inadequate training for both farmers and extension staff, lack of adequate and intense research on of the existing beekeeping technologies, equipment, honey bee and product utilization and low prioritization of beekeeping in relation to other enterprises in the wider agricultural sector. This activity consists of developing training modules for farmers, extensions workers, scientists and other practitioners on all aspects of bee production along the pollination services value chain, and conducting training sessions at various levels based on training needs assessment in the value chain.
Activity 4.5. Develop and promote bee health knowledge management systems through bee health value chain analysis
Products from regional value chain analysis of bee products and bee health will be packaged in form of policy briefs, and other knowledge products and disseminated. A D-Group-group will also be created for electronic discussions and information sharing on bee health, beekeeping and pollination services.
To ensure that conservation research and practice are available to end users, best-practice in pollination services, bee health and honey production will be documented and disseminated for both public awareness and the capacity-building, among others.
Dissemination workshops and regional technical workshops will also be organized to share lessons learnt and best practices.
Context/Lessons Learnt
Low impact of agricultural research in Africa is a combined result of weak linkages and collaboration with extension services and farmers. The application of research results appears to be most successful when research organisations closely collaborate with and provide mentoring to the national and regional research institutes (NARS and SROs) and farmers' federations. A similar conclusion can be made with regard to collaboration with RECs. In conclusion, impact of research results can be improved by strengthening linkages, synergies and complementarities at continental/regional level with concerned research (SROs) and regional economic development institutions (RECs) and Farmers Federations (FFs).
The continental and regional approach adopted by icipe and AU-IBAR in collaboration with FFs and RECs and SROs in addressing issues of bee health in Africa and related pollination services, and biodiversity conservation for agricultural productivity aims to add value to national research efforts and facilitate regional integration in research related issues, including capacity development on policies, regulatory frameworks, and design and implementation of specific interventions.
Most reviews of bee programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) point to the fact that countries:
- continue to benefit from horizontal programmes on honeybees and bee management but not in bee health;
- bee health programmes could have a significant impact on income generation, poverty reduction and livelihood improvement, and human and livestock health.
In fact, the introduction of improved disease and pest control and management strategies using bio-pesticides has a positive impact on beehive numbers (and consequentially on the increase of bee products) and pollination services (and consequently on the increase of crop production and crop productivity at farmers field level). The introduction of improved disease and pest management strategies proved also to have a beneficial effect on reducing soaring food prices in developing countries.
The project will draw lessons from EC past cooperation that has helped to reinforce and facilitate livestock improvement and trade within Africa through technical cooperation provided by icipe and AU-IBAR.
The project will also build on lessons from vast experience of AU-IBAR and icipe on policy driven, disease control, market and compliance to standards. Very few interventions have so far targeted the institutional aspects of the apiculture sector, and lessons learnt and best practices related to that topic have not been compiled yet. The project will thus attempt to compile and disseminate them to inform policy making and future interventions.
Communication and Visibility
Standards regarding visibility are derived from the "EU visibility guidelines for external actions".
icipe/AU-IBAR will ensure adequate visibility, using, whenever applicable, the standards of visibility described in the "Communication and Visibility Manual for EU External Actions" published in April 2008.
A detailed visibility plan was prepared during the first months of the project and submitted to the EU within three months after signature of the contract for approval.
