Increasing Kavuko Community’s Appreciation of Bee Conservation as a Food Production and Security Strategy
Abstract
The research project was carried out at a small village in Makueni County, Kenya, where bee
keeping has been practiced for a long time. The concern was that bee keeping practice was not
linked, at least consciously to food production and security. Bees are pollinators and without
pollination, food production would be drastically reduced. This demands the conscious
conservation of the pollinators. There was the need to increase the community’s awareness and
appreciation of bee conservation alongside traditional bee keeping, a strategy to increase the
community’s food production and security. The objectives were: Establish the population of
hives and bee colonies in the Kavuko area, determine the rate of hive colonisation in the area,
access the community’s level of awareness especially on the relationship between pollination
and crop yields and determine the yield differences between pollinated and non- pollinated
crops. The methods used include; a general survey within a 2km radius from the Pollen Glory
farm, the project’s focal point. A questionnaire was used to establish the exact status of each
homestead in respect to the hives there, similar to the survey method, a focus group of 30
farmers each having three hives monitored their colonization, the focus group used a face-toface
questionnaire to establish the awareness on value of pollination. This was complemented
by setting up a “bee hotel,” a structure intended to attract different species of pollinators for
guidance on how to conserve pollinators, a standard agronomical field layout was set up to test
the yield differences between pollinated and non- pollinated crops. 3 crops, namely,
strawberries, beans and tomatoes were planted in randomized block design with 3 replications.
A control experiment, where wire mesh cages were used to exclude all pollinators was set up.
Regular counts of the flowers and fruits/pods were made and graded for comparison. The results
showed that; only one third (27%) of the households had hives and the common hives were
traditional log hives (74%). Hive colonization was at 80% of the hives due to local management
methods. The farmers (82%) were aware of the process of pollination, its benefits, but, not in
relation to food production and security and their decline. They were also (68%) familiar with
traditional bee conservation methods. Pollinated strawberries produced a significantly higher
percentage (36%) of super grade fruits compared to non-pollinated (32%). The non-pollinated
beans produced more pods. The pollinated gave a high flower abortion. Tomatoes production
increased with pollinators. It was concluded that honey bees are important pollinators. Quantity
and quality were enhanced by honeybee pollinators. It is recommended that; the community
should be educated on the need to keep and conserve bees and take advantage of pollination
services for quantity and quality. Also leverage on honey and other hive products to be socio
economically empowered and combine traditional and modern innovations.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: