FAO trainer during beekeeping training in Juba, South Sudan

Away from smoke and stings, FAO introducing new beekeeping techniques 

Pasqualle Abdallah’s past ten years have been marked by climbing atop trees, using traditional beehives made of hulled tree trunks fixed in treetops, to harvest honey. He says this is coming to an end soon, thanks to the new skills he has acquired from a training organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

“The traditional beehives are difficult to place on tree branches high in the treetops, in the middle of the forest, and I used to harvest at night when the bees are sleeping,” Abdallah, 63, said. “Still, when harvesting some of the bees used to sting me until I almost collapsed and sometimes I would fall down. Also, moving at night became a problem. It was not safe,” he said.

Before he was selected for FAO’s beekeeping training in Juba, Abdallah was selling honey in a village just outside of Yei, in the southern part of South Sudan. Yei has been conflict-ridden, and many people from this area have fled across the border to Uganda for safety or the capital, Juba.  

No choice but to re-build livelihoods elsewhere

Abdallah left Yei in 2017, being forced to abandon his business which he said had enabled him to feed his family of two wives and eight children, and fled to the country’s capital, Juba. Upon arrival, he had to start over again, but now without the forest and trees in which to place his beehives and, more significantly, no job.  

Recent food security assessments show that most households in Juba cannot afford to eat more than one meal a day due to the soaring food prices and lack of employment opportunities due to the hard-hitting economic crisis. 

With the support of FAO, Abdallah was taught how to build and use modern beehives, which can be placed in the field around his homestead rather than in trees, apply methods to increase quality yields of honey, safe harvesting and hygienic processing techniques for honey and wax. To support the learning process, Abdallah was assigned to a group of 50 other fellow beekeepers to work with the assigned modern hives distributed by FAO.

“We were taught how to handle the bees, for example, how to attract them to the beehive and they gave us this protective clothing to protect us from bee stings,” adds Oliver Andrea, a 68-year-old who has been in the beekeeping business since 2009, to the testimony of Abdallah.  

New skills at work

The group members receiving the training and equipment including honey strainers, smokers, protective clothing and modern hives will be able to re-establish their livelihoods and support their families in an area deemed safe for the time being. Through this project, FAO will train 125 other beekeepers of which 30 will go-on to become trainers themselves, like Abdallah and Andrea.

“We were using our hands to filter the honey, but through the training I have seen how to produce more and better honey,” explains Oliver. “This way, I can survive in the city by getting enough money to feed my family and pay school fees for the children,” explains Oliver.

Abdallah adds, “Without this equipment, we can’t do our jobs. The surroundings here are very different, but we are here now, ready to work.” 

What’s next

Through this project, over 2 000 households in Juba have been supported with various income-generating trainings like beekeeping but also value chain addition trainings like fish and milk handling, processing and preservation. FAO has also set up farming groups that have received training on agronomic practices and assisted through the provision of agriculture inputs such as seeds, tools and irrigation equipment.

The activity is part of a FAO project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), to improve food security, nutritional status and incomes among vulnerable households in various localities in and around Juba.