World Bee Day (20.05)
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” (Albert Einstein)
SDG#2 Zero hunger
The SDGs aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices: supporting small-scale farmers and allowing equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.
Executive summary
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 20th as World Bee Day, recognizing the crucial role bees play in increasing crop yields and promoting food security and nutrition. As Israel has a comparative advantage in, this year MASHAV chose to participate in marking the World Bee Day in order to raise awareness of the need for bee population' conservation and its importance for the entire ecosystem.
MASHAV believes in beekeeping as a tool for development. It allows improving the livelihoods, nutrition and food security in the developing world while empowering thousands of smallholder farmers. Beekeeping not only helps to bring individual families out of poverty but also boosts local and national economies.
MASHAV pursues a wide arrange of projects to share the know-how and relevant techniques to help the developing world to make the most of the ecological and economic benefits offered by bees and beekeeping for biodiversity enhancement and livelihood development.
- Modern apiculture management: Honey, by-products and pollination – International Course taught every year in Russian and English at MASHAV Agricultural Training Center – Shefayim.
- Center of Excellence for Integrated Beekeeping Development in India – Last November a new Center of Excellence was inaugurated in Ramnagar, Haryana, within the framework of the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project.
- Short-term consultancies in India – Israeli experts were sent in behalf of MASHAV to New Delhi in bee's missions during the last three years within the framework of the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project.
- On the spot courses on Beekeeping – Several on the spot courses were conducted in Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia.
- Beekeeping Resource Center in Myanmar – In 2015 a resource center has been established in Myanmar with the framework of "Plan Bee", Tag's ongoing beekeeping project implemented in cooperation with MASHAV.
Last December the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution declaring May 20th as World Bee Day, recognizing the crucial role bees play in increasing crop yields and promoting food security and nutrition. The World Bee Day aims to raise awareness of the need to protect and preserve the bees' colonies in order to reach a world without hunger. The resolution was co-sponsored by 115 UN Member States, following the initiative of the Slovenian representative.
As Israel has a comparative advantage in beekeeping because it deals with a variety of conditions and areas of growth, this year MASHAV chose to participate in marking the World Bee Day in order to raise awareness of the need for bee population' conservation and its importance for the entire ecosystem.
Beekeeping and apiculture: Why it is important to reach the Zero Hunger goal?
Different studies show that bee and other pollinators' populations have significantly decreased, making them more and more endangered. This is affected by numerous factors that are the consequence of human activity: intensive agriculture, widespread use of pesticides and pollution caused by waste. Bees are exposed to new diseases and pests. The living environment of bees is shrinking due to the ever-increasing number of the global population. Their survival and development are also threatened by climate change. The extinction of bees will not only deprive the world of a species, but it may have drastic consequences for entire ecosystems and human race.
The data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) show that bees and other pollinators are invaluable when it comes to ensuring the global safety of the food supply chain. A third of all food produced in the world depends on pollination. The international study of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2016 estimated that between US$ 235 billion and US$ 577 billion worth of annual global food production relies on direct contributions by pollinators. In addition, agricultural plants which require pollination are an important source of jobs and income for farmers, particularly for small and family farms in developing countries. Bees have also an important role in the preservation of the ecological balance and biodiversity in nature. Prompt protection of bees and other pollinators will significantly contribute to solving problems with global food supply and eliminating hunger. It will also contribute to efforts to halt further loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems, as well as to the objectives of sustainable development defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Coping with honeybees' major challenge: Climate Change
Honeybees' populations face many challenges these days, including pathogens, pests, poor nutrition and pesticides, but the major one is still climate change. The burning of fossil fuels and its consequent increased occurrences and severity of droughts and floods and the overall increase in global temperature are making them more and more endangered. Bees need water to survive, but more important, the flowering plants are unable to grow where there is not enough moisture in the ground. The risk of flooding, on the other hand, has the potential to destroy the necessary pollinator forage and the structure housing a bee colony. The global warming is causing shifts in seasons, making plants to bloom in unusual times and affecting forage availability throughout the year.
Even though the climate change is risking bees' survival and development all around the world, there are farming practices that can be harnessed to reverse the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
On the one hand, a healthy microbiome in soil and sustainable agricultural practices are essential to grow thriving plants, produce abundant forage to pollinators and provide enough crops and biomass that can pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. On the other hand, developing resilient beekeeping techniques is crucial to raise less vulnerable bees' populations and to increase the apiary's ability to sustain production under challenging climate conditions. Beekeepers can increase their adaptive capacity by handling a smaller number of hives and locations, limiting the inputs to the apiary itself, reducing pest and disease by management and genetic tolerance and producing high-value products and direct markets business opportunities.
MASHAV's training programs provide farmers and policymakers with the necessary tools and knowledge to develop response, recovery and transformational capacities that are crucial to pursuing beekeeping operations under challenging conditions.
Beekeeping in Israel
The “land of milk and honey” is famous for having the most ancient hives known in the world, dated from 3000 years ago. In ancient Israel, there were 180 hives able to produce 500 kg of honey and 50 kg of wax per year. Today, Israel has 110,000 beehives kept by 500 beekeepers located all over the country. The bee most commonly kept today in Israel is the Italian bee, Apis mellifera L. Var.
Liqustical Spin. Israeli Beekeepers adopted advanced methods of mechanization and breeding in order to increase their honey, resulting in an average annual honey production of 45kg per hive and a total honey production of 3000 metric tons per year, with a turnover of $15 million. In addition to the quality of the honey produced by the Israeli hives for commerce and consumption, other uses of the bee colonies have been developed, such as crop pollination and apiary products.
Even though the beekeeping industry is small, it is very important as an infrastructure for all the agricultural activities. Today, the bee industry in Israel supplies around 90,000 beehives for pollination of orchards, field crops and vegetables. The honeybees' contribution for Israel economy as pollinators is $500 million, meaning that the contribution of the pollination service is 30 times more than the beekeeping incomes. This has been the result of a coordinated effort among the various governmental and private bodies in the fields of research, extension, marketing and promotion. A special breed selection and an experimental station have been established, where advanced techniques of breeding are being developed to improve the genetic quality of the colonies. In addition, research into the developing of new mechanized tools for more efficient production methods have been undertaken.
Beekeeping as tool for development
MASHAV believes in beekeeping as a tool for improving the livelihoods, nutrition and food security in the developing world while empowering thousands of smallholder farmers. Apiculture is a feasible way to generate job opportunities and increase incomes, while at the same time maintaining natural biodiversity. Bees do not require daily attention and beekeeping does not take up valuable land or time, which would have been spent on other farming activities. Apiculture gives some of the world's poorest people the opportunity to harvest commodities of international quality and value. This is why beekeeping not only helps to bring individual families out of poverty but also boosts local and national economies. MASHAV pursues a wide arrange of training programs to share the know-how and relevant techniques to help the developing world to make the most of the ecological and economic benefits offered by bees and beekeeping for biodiversity enhancement and livelihood development.
Beekeeping-related Course held in Israel
Modern apiculture management: Honey, by-products and pollination (MASHAV Agricultural Training Center)
The course aims to share Israel’s experience and applied research, taking into consideration the adaptability of methods and technologies, to meet local conditions in each participant's country.
The course includes professional lectures and visits on the following subjects: Genetics, anatomy, physiology and biology of the honey bee; Hive management and production; Crop pollination; Queen rearing ; Economics of production; Pathology and Parasitology of Bees; Mechanization and technology; Sanitation and health; Quality Assurance; and Honey by Products.
During the last few years, there were four courses in Russian (2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017), with the participation of more than 100 researchers from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. There were also four international courses taught in English during 2005, 2011, 2013 and 2016 for 95 experts from all around the world.
MASHAV's activities abroad in recent years
Center of Excellence for Beekeeping Development in India – Last November a new Center of Excellence (CoE) for Integrated Beekeeping Development was inaugurated in Ramnagar, Haryana, one of the 18 fully operational centers established within the framework of the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project. The Beekeeping center in Ramnagar is the first of its kind between India and Israel, and will address Queen Rearing, Quality Control Labs, Enhanced Production, Honey Production Value Chain, Pollination and more.
Short term consultancies in India - Israeli experts were sent in behalf of MASHAV to New Delhi in a bee's mission in November 2016, November 2017 and March 2018. The visits focused on the demonstration of beehives, the establishment of a protocol to produce honey queens, and the development of training programs for local farmers at the new CoE for Integrated Beekeeping Development established within the framework of the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project.
On the spot courses - Several on the spot courses on Beekeeping were conducted in Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia.
"Plan Bee" Project in Myanmar – In 2015 a unique Beekeeping Resource Center has been established in Myanmar within the framework of Tag’s ongoing beekeeping project implemented in cooperation with MASHAV. The goal of the beekeeping project is to empower and improve the livelihoods, nutrition and food security for thousands of vulnerable people in Myanmar’s Southern Shan region by introducing advanced beekeeping training and equipment while strengthening the capacity of local organizations to bring the honey and by-products to local and international markets. The Beekeeping Resource Center, a social enterprise managed by the community, serves as both an education center and a tourist destination. Over 2,000 farmers have taken part in pollination and beekeeping training within the framework of Tag’s Plan Bee project, and more than 100,000 additional people have directly benefited from the project’s activities.