Towards a revival of the beekeeping sector |24 June 2016

The Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) is in the process of creating a new Apiculture Unit under the Livestock Services Section so as to better monitor, advise and collect data on honey production in the country.

At present there are no statistics on the amount of honey being produced locally to compare with what the country is importing.

According to a pilot survey which the SAA carried out last year, a total of 75 beekeepers were recorded. These included people with one to 80 beehives. But still beekeeping is considered and practiced more as a hobby than a business.

In its effort to attract more people and get them interested in the activity and explore its vast commercial potentials so it can contribute to the country’s economy, a training for beekeepers and other individual interested in exploring the economic potentials of the activity was organised last year.

A group of 50 beekeepers followed the training organised in  partnership with the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) and the Competitive Local Innovations for Small-Scale Agriculture (Clissa) project

Seychelles is among four Indian Ocean island countries after, Mauritius, the Comoros and Zanzibar where the training is being carried out.

It aims at improving food and income security of small holder farmers and other interested individuals.

The training targeted people who have no prior experience in beekeeping but have an interest in keeping bees, or have a hive(s) which is managed for them by someone else as well as others with some beekeeping experience and who have kept or are keeping bees on their own.

Other training sessions are to be conducted very soon on Mahé and Praslin for anyone who wishes to be introduced to commercial beekeeping.