By EMMANUEL ALOMU & TOLBERT EDAIT
Apiary experts have warned that bees will be no more in the near future if people continue cutting down trees, harvesting honey using fire and spraying crops with chemicals.
According to them, spraying crops and using fire for harvesting honey kills a number of bees while the cutting down of trees chases away bees from an area.
Experts said bee-keeping improves household incomes among all families because all categories of people including the disabled people, the youth, the old and children without vast land can practice apiary farming.
This was during the bee-keepers day celebration organized by Vision TERUDO in partnership with Ngora district local Government
The event that attracted bee-keepers from Lango, Karamoja, Teso and Kenya among others was held at Vision TERUDO offices in Ngora District on Tuesday.
James Peter Inyangat, the Executive Director Vision TERUDO said bee keeping improves the country’s economy because bees are even one of the features or symbols on Uganda’s shilling Notes.
Stella Apolot Isodo, the Ngora district woman MP who is also a member of Parliamentary committee of Agriculture said if people continue reducing the bees, there will be food insecurity, reduction of employment, income
“The results you get from bee keeping is too high because If you have shs4,000 and put in this business, you will get 10,000,” Apolot who is also an expert in bee keeping said.
Suzan Akol, the lecturer of Busitema University, said it’s unfortunate that people have relaxed keeping bees.
“Our ancestors in Teso used to keep bees a lot but nowadays, you can even travel for about ten kilometers without seeing bee-hives in the nearby bushes,” Akol, who is also an apiary farmer, said.
She blamed some agriculturalists for not telling people the advantages of bees in the crops instead they misadvise farmers to spray crops when they are flowering hence killing bees which are to pollinate the crops.
According to her, years ago, the ancestors used not to spray crops and Teso was a food basket in Uganda but spraying crops has reduced the crop harvests in the sub region.
“Even we are complaining of cancers because crops are being sprayed,” she said.
Benjamin Wolf, an apiary expert in Germany pledged to support bee-keeping farming in the Teso sub region.
There was an exhibition of various products of bees like honey and propolis among others.
