Apiculture is the agroforestry practise of rearing honey bees. It is the care and management of honey bees for the production of honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom in an ambient and sustainable environment. There are two major types of apiculture which can be categorised viz:
• Honeybees Rearing – Indigenous bees to the Eurasian and African continents
• By-products – not indigenous to Africa and involving:
⁃ Bees wax
⁃ Propolis
⁃ Royal jelly and
⁃ Bees venom
Honey is a delicious and natural sweet substance produced by honeybees on the living parts of plans from sector of plants or secretions of insects. Honey is a mixture of simply especially sucrose, fructose (which are readily absorbed by the body) and glucose, with water, vitamins, proteins, minerals, amino acids and pollen. Honey can be colourless, light dark or completely dark. Its taste, flavour or sweetness depts on the source of the nectar.
Bee keeping is an agroforestry practise which has relatively low commercial application in the country. Almost all the States in Nigeria practise apiculture but few farmers can be said to be commercially oriented.
The Nigerian apiculture sector is valued at N36.8B according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems and Rural Development. The current consumption rate is 380,000 metric tonnes while current production is 15,000 metric tonnes leaving a very wide margin of 365,000 metric tonnes which, unfortunately, is currently serviced by imported honey from Europe and Asia.
Out of the 380,000mt consumed, over 50% is consumed in Lagos while 35% is consumed in Abuja and Port-harcourt combined and the rest being for the other states of the federation.
Bee farming is a profitable venture which can be set up with less than two hundred thousand naira by an individual. Commercial bee farming includes production (including hive production and colonization), processing and marketing. The location could be a farm land. The bees do not require daily care and no labour is required for management till the harvesting and processing period.
It is commercially viable because it has many derivatives such as:
wax for furniture polish, candles and crayons;
pollen used for food, cosmetics, preparation of medicine and hand pollination;
propolis used for nutritional supplements and repairs of honey comb;
venom used for medicines;
royal jelly used for human nutritional supplements and feeding queen bees and honey bees.
Facts and Nutritional benefits of Honey:
• 17 – 20% water and 80% simple sugars
• Nutritional supplement – source of vitamins and minerals
• Serves as major input in orthodox and traditional medicines
• Mental and physical alertness of consumer
• Highly sourced industrial material.
The state has
• Trained 300 women and youth in Apiculture and set them up with six (6) commercially viable apiaries.
