Bee to Wealth: A story from LINK Ghana /AFP/ Bongo Project

My name is Apogyaga Asigikama.I am 23 years of age and a member of the Adaboya Community honey production group. I have no other livelihood apart from my peasant farming of ¼ acre of millet and cowpea. I barely make up to GHS 100 annually from my farming business due to my reliance on the natural erratic rains. It has been difficult for me because the rains do not start/end as expected and the soil water requirements of the crops are not met leading to poor yields.

Alternative livelihood such as the non crop production such as the honey production introduced by the UNDP / METSI Adaptation Fund Project through LINK Ghana is more than a blessing to me. This is the first time I am engaged in this type of project and I am proud to be part of it. I hear people from other communities making a lot of money from honey production and have always wondered when I will get such an opportunity. Now here I am also smiling because I am a direct beneficiary rearing bees for honey. LINK Ghana trained and provided us with the hives and their accessories.

I am expecting to make six (6) gallons of honey and to sell each gallon for 150 Ghana cedis which will give me a total of GH 900 from one bee hive per harvest. We currently have 5 hives in total which means we will be making GHS 4,500 per harvest and we can harvest two times a year. Meaning we can make up to GHS 9,000 per annum.  For me, this is a great skill I have learnt that I will expand on my own because I have seen the business opportunity in it. I do not need to depend on my millet and cowpea farm because the climate is failing us awfully. Rearing bees will give my household more food, more income and also protecting the environment because we will no more burn the vegetation and the bees we are told will busily pollinate crops and trees around hence increasing productivity.

Now I have hopes that my livelihood will be improved with the introduction of this project. I can’t express my gratitude to LINK Ghana and United Nations Development Project for this blessing you have granted onto us. Indeed I am blessed with this great opportunity.

Social Capital Strengthened through Group Honey Production-LINK Ghana makes a difference.

Under the Integrated Bee and Environmental protection (IBEP) project under the UNDP / METSI Adaptation Fund, LINK Ghana facilitated us to form the Adaboya Bee Keeping Group with membership of thirty (30, 20f/10m) and supported us with bee hives and all the accessories for honey production. As part of the training we received from LINK Ghana, we are not only anticipating high incomes for households from the harvest of the honey but now people with a common vision and aspirations we are able to meet. Apart from meeting to discuss and monitor how our honey production business will be improved, we also discuss social issues. Our community’s 20 years ago were very united and could address individual and community problems without difficulties.

This was possible because communities were united and they met to discuss issues of concern. This has been missing in this community but the UNDP / METSI AF project through LINK Ghana we are able to meet to discuss our work as well as individual and community challenge’s such as the education of our children, mitigations to the poor rains and even some health challenges especially our children. We have been able to find some solutions to some of these problems which is great. We are proud of LINK Ghana and its development partners UNDP and the Government of Ghana. LINK Ghana made us understand the need to plant more trees on our farms and even at homes. What a joy we have as a group. What a great group we have and we will continue to meet even after the AF project is ended. We are proud to be a group and we hope to maintain this group till our children and their children are members. We are currently planning to register as a cooperative with the Assembly so that we are even able to supply for additional support and to also have legal right to operate with any business entity in this district and Ghana as a whole.

We have nothing much to say to AF Project but we know God will bless you for making us to understand and to see the importance of working as a group in the production of honey in our community. God sanctify you so much.