To complement efforts by the federal government to secure food through agriculture, the African Nature Investment Foundation (ANI) has launched a beekeeping programme for farmers living around the two sectors of Gashak-Gumti National Park, located in Adamawa and Taraba states in the northeastern part of Nigeria.
Gashaka is south of the park located in Taraba State, and Gumti, the northern sector located in Adamawa State.
The Community Liaison Manager for the ANI Foundation, David Peter, confirmed to LEADERSHIP that the scheme was launched in late 2024 to enrich the host community members through small-scale income and promote food security.
“We started the beekeeping initiative with five communities in the Gashaka sector and later extended it to five more in the Gumti sector.
“Currently, we have 50 beneficiaries evenly split between the two sectors, with 25 in each.
We have provided them with training and all the necessary materials and tools for production, along with protective gear for hive inspections,” Peter stated.
According to Peter, the adopted scheme allocates five hives to each selected community. “With five hives per community, we have 125 production hives in each of the two sectors, totalling 250 production hives across both sectors.”
Peter stated that it is important to note that the beekeeping initiative goes beyond the economic empowerment of farmers. “Previously, before the beekeeping programme, communities would cut down an entire tree to harvest the honey found within it. Can you imagine how wasteful this is? Our beekeeping programme will stop trees being cut down needlessly. We are preventing deforestation!”.
