One of the beneficiaries of the Sierra Leone Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture (FSCA) project recently gracefully walked into the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) offices in Freetown to express gratitude for a modified knowledge gained in beekeeping and honey production.
The project was designed to assist smallholder farmers to improve their livelihood skills, overcome production constraints and organize themselves to take advantage of market opportunities mainly through increasing marketed output, value addition and improved marketing arrangements of key commodities.
According to the FAO Country Representative, Gabriel Rugalema, FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security with funding from the Italian Government in 2009 mobilized and trained Farmer Based Organizations in the Kono and Koinadugu District on increased productivity and value addition of several commodities including beekeeping, honey production, processing and marketing.
In an interview with Awoko, Pastor John Kamara stated that the project has exposed him and his group to modern beekeeping methods, cleaner and safer methods of honey harvesting and processing which involves the construction of appropriate wooden bee hives for better production, sustainability and profitability.
Pastor Kamara whose livelihood greatly depends on beekeeping explained that the training enabled them to realize that their practice and method of harvesting were uneconomical as they used to drive the bees away from their hives with fire, killing a large number of them, failing to realize that their method of harvesting was reducing the bee colony and as a result threatening their livelihood.
He reiterated that the training was a success as the knowledge gained has greatly transformed the standard of his family as the honey which was sold in plastic bottles at local market on a cheaper price has become a quality product with a solid packaging sold both locally and in supermarkets.
He disclosed that since 2009, he has trained over three hundred and fifty fellow producers and that the specimen of the honey has been tested and approved in the United States of America for which he is highly hopeful of attracting a bigger market. “I am currently working on processing a Moringa flavoured honey” he added.
In his reaction, the FAO Country Representative stated that it is a regular occurrence that poor farmers walk into the organization’s offices worldwide to express gratitude for imparting their lives for the better. “On a daily basis thousands of FAO staff both in the field and at headquarters work beyond the call of duty to help eradicate poverty, hunger and food insecurity” he added.
Gabriel Rugalema noted that the staff of the organization do not even often stay in one place to witness the results and the downstream impact of their labour, but it always happen that the beneficiaries of their field projects turn up to share a success story and express gratitude to the staff and the institution.
He described the move of the beekeeper as very small gesture, but a very big motivation for FAO staff not only in Sierra Leone but worldwide.
By Keifa M. Jaward
Monday March 24, 2014