Economy
THE Enugu State Government on Wednesday announced plans of transform honey business by increasing beekeeping activities in order to raise its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Mr Benjamin Onuze, the Acting Director, Technical Services, Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme (ENADEP), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu that the state had already trained 50 farmers on beekeeping.
According to him, the training was sponsored by the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension and was held from Sept. 11 to Oct. 9.
He said that each farmer was given a beehive with the stand and a kit containing rainboot, overall, cap and harvesting knife.
Onuze told NAN that the farmers were drawn from the six agricultural zones of the state.
“These zones include Aninri, Awgu, Enugu Ezike, Enugu, Nsukka and Nkanu,” he said.
The acting director said that both the training and equipment were given to the farmers free.
“Nothing was paid by the farmers,” he said.
NAN reports that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had in 2018 said that between 235 billion dollars and 577 billion dollars worth of annual global food production relies on direct contributions by pollinators such as bees, birds and bats.
According to the FAO report, the annual world beekeeping trade value stood at 450 billion dollars (N162 trillion).
The report said that the African market share was at five per cent of the world annual production of honey, with Ethiopia contributing 40,000 tonnes at 255,300,000 dollars (N91.9 billion) while Nigeria contributes about 15,000 tonnes worth N96, 025,000.
Some analysts said that Nigeria consumes more than 400,000 tonnes of honey annually and produces less than 40,000 tonnes, leading to an import bill of more than two billion dollars.
NAN
– November 13, 2019 @ 17:35 GMT |
Tags: Enugu set to increase beekeeping activities to boost IGR
