BEEKEEPING IN SAHEL

In Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso and Niger, beekeeping is usually practiced with traditional methods in all the Sahelian and Sahelian-Sudanian areas. The product of beekeeping is basically honey, but the quantity produced often cannot cover the domestic demand; while wax is not adequately exploited. The profitability of the bee production is high, and it may create good income opportunities in rural areas, with interesting possibilities to increase this production. At present honey production is limited because of the current traditional technique employed, the insufficient beekeeping professional training, and the presence of some Apis mellifera parasites, among which the small hive beetle Aethina tumida, ants and white ants. Good possibilities of development and production increase may be possible with a wider diffusion of modern beekeeping techniques. Within the international cooperation project “Program for Food Security in the Sahel and West Africa” funded by Regione Piedmonte, since 2001 studies have been made on the apicultural situation of two countries and classes, for the dissemination of knowledge on the biology of bees and modern beekeeping techniques, were carried out in different locations for the training of teachers and traditional beekeepers. The bees living in Niger and Burkina Faso are A. m. jemenitica, A. m. adansonii and their hybrids, but their distribution in these countries is not well defined. Samples of bees collected in Niger have shown that bees derive from the subspecies A. m. adansonii for the presence of mytho-types A4 and A4’.