Bees for Business: Rwenzori

Project Background

In western Uganda, over 90% of smallholder farmers depend on coffee as their main source of income. However, the impacts of climate change increasingly threaten coffee production in the region.

Meanwhile, many farmers harvest their coffee before it is ripe for income to meet their immediate needs. However, this decreases coffee quality and value, reducing the income of the farmer and volume of saleable coffee received by the co-operative.

Our Bees for Business projects aim to work with local co-operatives to help farmers diversify into beekeeping, building their knowledge, skills, confidence and financial resilience with an additional source of income. We are currently delivering two Bees for Business projects in Uganda.

Project details

In western Uganda, over 90% of smallholder farmers depend on coffee as their main source of income. Many farmers harvest their coffee before it is ripe for income to meet immediate needs, however this decreases coffee quality and value, reducing the income of the farmer and volume of saleable coffee received by the co-operative.

In partnership with Ugandan coffee co-operative, Bukonzo, this project is supporting 141 coffee farmers (30% female) to diversify into beekeeping as an additional source of income. Beekeeping generates regular income as honey is harvested twice a year, and is not reliant on rainfall or soil quality, making it a sustainable and climate-smart income diversification activity.

Through this project, each farmer has received five modern beehives hives and training in beekeeping skills and business management delivered by Bunyangabu Bee Keepers, a locally based beekeeping co-operative. Training has also been delivered to Bukonzo Field Officers and project staff in beekeeping management, building the internal capacity of the cooperative ensuring they can provide support as required to the farmers, and expand the activity to new communities.

Project aims

• Beekeeping will increase the monthly income of the farmers by 60%, strengthening their financial resilience and reducing their need to harvest unripe coffee.
• By placing beehives among the coffee trees, the bees will act as pollinators, increasing coffee production by 20%, supporting the farmer and the sustainability of the co-operative.