Ambassador's Speeches

Koya Rural Bee Keepers Project

August 17, 2006

Self-Help Project Launch Remarks
For the Koya Rural Bee Keepers Project
At Newton, Koya Chiefdom, Port Loko District
By Ambassador Thomas N. Hull

Mr. Chairman, Headman Mohamed Kossie Kargbo, Project Coordinator  Samuel E.K. Harding, SLEDIC Representative Alhaji Abu Bakarr Kabbey, Councilor Abdul Keddie Mansaray, Distinguished Guests:

Thank you for your warm welcome in Newton.  I am extremely pleased to be with you today to launch the Koya Rural Bee Keepers project, which is one of the more unusual and potentially more significant community development projects that the American Embassy has supported through the Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund.

This project provides benefits to the Koya community by enabling farmers to harvest honey using smoke rather than fire.  This harvesting method saves surrounding forests and does not kill bees, which in turn increases the yields of both honey and decreases risk to farmers who harvest honey.  This constitutes a complete change in bee farming from the traditional method that kills the bees by fire and endangers the farmer.

The production of good quality honey and beeswax should be of great benefit to Sierra Leone.  People have used honey for thousands of years as both food and medicine.  Modern researchers have verified honey’s beneficial effects on digestion and wound treatment.  Honey is a natural antibiotic.  Beeswax from beehives is used in cosmetics, soaps, shoe polish, candles, and lubricants.  There is an international market for both honey and beeswax.

What we are about to do here today is distribute some modern materials used in bee farming.

These materials make it possible for farmers to increase the quantity and quality of honey produced and ensures the possibility of further increases next year.  The materials include protective clothing, such as boots, gloves, mesh net hats and jumpsuits, and smokers for the farmers to use in driving the honey bees from their hives during the harvest.

I am especially pleased that two of the recipients of the materials that we are distributing today are schools that can teach youth how to become future honey bee farmers.  If students can see that farming with modern techniques can be profitable, they will be less inclined to migrate to Freetown and other urban areas where they would earn less money and have a worse quality of life.  Sierra Leone’s future is in farming, but only if the young people of today can see that agriculture can lead to prosperity tomorrow.
 
I have described this project as “potentially more significant” than other community development projects for two reasons.  First, because it uses a new technique, the success of this honey bee project should be an example for honey bee farmers in neighboring areas and eventually throughout the country to increase the quantity, the quality, and the value of the honey and beeswax that they produce.  Secondly, this project has attracted international attention that could lead to fair trade labeling of Sierra Leonean honey and potentially other agricultural commodities as well.   As I will explain, this could lead to farmers everywhere in Sierra Leone getting better prices for their produce through fair trade, which would make farming a more attractive profession.

Two weeks ago, a representative from the Fair Trade Labeling Organization based in Germany came to visit this project to see whether Sierra Leone’s honey industry could be developed and eventually labeled as fair trade.  All over the developing world, farmers’ cooperatives that meet certain social, economic, environmental, and labor standards have become certified as fair trade and are able to receive fair prices for their products, while at the same time generating community benefits.

The adoption of fair trade standards represents a potential for adding value to Sierra Leone’s agriculture sector.  Fair trade standards exist not only for honey, but also for rice, sugar, coffee, cocoa, bananas, seed cotton, and other crops.

I am happy to see that Alhaji Kebbay from SLEDIC is here today, since Mr. Kebbay works with farmers’ cooperatives all over the country to help develop Sierra Leonean industries for export.  Over the years, Mr. Kebbay has worked closely with the U.S. Embassy to help Sierra Leone qualify for exporting to the U.S. under the duty- and quota-free provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).  Honey is only one of the thousands of products that can be exported duty-free to the U.S. under AGOA, and we hope that as Sierra Leone continues to rebuild, your industries will be able to take advantage of these export benefits through the assistance of organizations like SLEDIC.

The Special Self Help Fund provided 11.6 million leones to the Koya project, and I am happy to see that the funds were put to good use.  The Koya Rural Bee Keepers project connects a modern technique with an ancient practice.  The bee keepers’ efforts will raise income through increased production, protect surrounding forests from non-essential fires, and increase pollination levels - and therefore increase the yields - of surrounding fruit crops.  Increased production will open up the possibility for even greater financial benefit through a fair trade certified export industry.   The Koya Rural Bee Keepers are an example to entrepreneurs and farmers throughout the country by showing what can be achieved when a community comes together.  The American Embassy is proud to be associated with this initiative.

I wish you success in promoting honey production and hope to see Sierra Leone exporting honey and beeswax to other countries soon.