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Kenya: Production of Honey On the Decline
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
14 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007
Beatrice Obwocha
Nairobi
Honey production in Rift Valley Province has continued to fall in the past three years due to destruction of forests and diminishing land sizes.
Rift Valley Province bee keeping officer, Mr John Mwangi, said 2,010,000 litres of honey was produced last year compared to 2,023,481 harvested the previous year.
He told The Standard in Nakuru, that in 2003, the province produced 2,250,000 litres of honey, but since then it has been on the decline.
"The downward trend is set to continue because bees are lacking nectar to produce honey," he said.
He said though demand for local honey had gone up, production was low, which had also pushed prices up.
"The supply of Kenyan honey cannot meet the demand thus the price of the commodity has gone up," he said.
Mwangi said environmental destruction, especially of forests was the major cause of the shortage of trees and flowers from where bees feed nectar.
He said negative human activity along the forests had contributed to less vegetation where bees drew nectar.
He said land demarcation due to increasing population was also affecting bee keeping.
He also said people feared bee stings and were reluctant to accommodate hives especially in densely populated areas.
"So far the leading honey producers in the region are the arid and semi-arid region because they are sparsely populated and hence have less human activity on the environment," he said.
The areas include Baringo, Laikipia, West Pokot, Samburu, Transzoia and Narok.
Mwangi said most bee-keeping in the region was by small scale and peasant farmers who are unable to purchase modern hives.
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He said the cost of materials for the construction of affordable hives had also discouraged the small-scale farmers.
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