Bees for Business: Kabwohe

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

To deliver this project we are working in partnership with Ugandan coffee co-operative, Banyankole Coffee Services (BCS).

This project has equipped coffee farmers with beekeeping skills and provided them with the tools and equipment to set up a beekeeping enterprise to increase their income and improve their livelihood.

As part of this project, agroforestry trees will be distributed to the project participants for planting in their coffee farms, where the beehives will be placed. Placing the hives in the coffee farms, will increase coffee yield through cross pollination from the bees.

Project aims 

1. 210 farmers will establish a sustainably managed beekeeping enterprise producing 35kg of honey each year.
2. Coffee production will increase by 50% over the next four years as a result of increased pollination from bees, supporting the sustainability of the co-operative.
3. Farmers will increase their climate resilience and improve their coffee yield through the planting of agroforestry trees.