Nigeria today joins the rest of the world to mark world bees day.
World Bee Day is set aside to create awareness on the significance of bees and other pollinator for the survival of the ecosystem, with emphasis on the need to safe guard the existence of bees and populate bee farms towards creating a sure platform for more original honey production.
Honey is a natural nutritional and medicinal product gotten from Bees.
Honey which is produced from Bees is important for domestic, cosmetics and pharmaceutical uses.
Shortage of honey is a global phenomenal that is generating concerns, with the American honey bee decline placed at 89%, Nigeria is not left out, as evident in the high cost of honey with many fake honey in shelves of some supermarket stores.
The shortage is attributed to habitat loss, pesticides, climate change among others across the world.
A world without bees would bring shortage in supply of bee pollinated fruits and original honey
A bee farmer, Elder Charles Olili, said bee farming is a specialized one that needed the support of government particularly in the area of zero interest loans to enable them produce in large scale at affordable prices for the benefit of all citizens.
Stanley Onyekwere called for mechanized bee farming implements for the bee farmers at subsided rate and creation of honey market for the farmers to sell their products with ease.
Caleb Owen pointed out that alot of people in the agro sector do not even know that bee farms is a money making venture that is very lucrative, and called for sensitisation and encouragement for bee farmers.
“I think what government needs to do is to encourage the bee farmers, give incentive to them and also sensitise other farmers to see the opportunity in the bee farm business considering the daily importance of honey. This will make other farmers venture into the bee farm business”
The Secretary, FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Malam Abubakar Ibrahim said plans are in the offing to Scale up bee farming in the territory, and revealed that special attention would be given to further boost bee farming venture in next year’s budget.
It is expected that government at all levels would give more attention to bee farmers across the country, with a view to increasing honey production in Nigeria, considering its medicinal and nutritional values.
The theme for the 2022 World Bee Day is: “Bee Engaged: Celebrating the diversity of bees and beekeeping systems”
Remi Johnson/Daniel Adejo
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