Enugu to increase beekeeping activities to boost IGR

The Enugu State Government, on Wednesday, announced plans of transform honey business by increasing beekeeping activities to raise its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Mr Benjamin Onuze, the Acting Director, Technical Services, Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme (ENADEP), said 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 September 11 to October 9.
He said that each farmer was given a beehive with the stand and a kit containing rainboot, overall, cap and harvesting knife.
Onuze said 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.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had in 2018 said that between $235 billion and $577 billion 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 (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 (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.