Economic growth targeted as Nigeria prepares to host ApiExpo

The Apiculture sub-sector has been tipped to boost agriculture for tangible quality harvest, tackle unemployment, create industries, create access to market, ensures food safety, improve livelihood of rural dwellers, increase the income of rural farmers and boost the economy of a nation is Apiculture.

To this end, Nigeria is making necessary arrangements to attract foreign investment in honey production which will in turn boost agricultural productivity through natural bee pollination.

In this light, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, recently launched the Nigeria Apiculture Platform (NAP) and was decorated as the grand patron of that platform.

The idea to launch NAP was borne after the launch of a continental platform, Africa Apiculture Platform (AAP) ON 14TH December, 2014 by Africa Union-Intra Bureau for Animal Research (AU-IBAR), as a part of the Bee Project that is being funded by European Union (EU) for Africa member states. This is in recognition of the above listed advantages of Apiculture to Agriculture.

The first chairman of AAP at the continental platform who is also the first chairman of NAP at the national level,  the chairman of A & Shine honey limited, Ademola Adeshina, has hinted that, plans are underway to stage the first ever Honey Show Exposition in Nigeria in 2017.

The honey show which will be a week event, will create awareness on how beekeeping can transform the livelihood of active but poor rural farmers, youths, women and will create the single most business and networking through which honey value chain actors will easily access apiculture and market information, business contacts, experience sharing, exposures, consumer feedbacks and will unveil new hive-products on the market.

The show is also expected to will provide a platform for a direct interaction with consumers, developing partners, relevant government bodies and questions and answer forum.

Adeshina also hinted that the country won the bid to host the continent of Africa and the rest of the world in 2018 in an exposition tagged ApiExpo and also to play host to the General Assembly Congress of AAP.

Nigeria, through a bid prepared by Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with NAP, won the hosting right after defending the bid in Rwanda – Kigali ApiExpo 2016 to host the event. The Honey show will be an opportunity to test-run the hosting of ApiExpo2018.

Preparatory to this event, NAP will send a delegation of exhibitors to showcase at the world Bee Honey congress tagged Adirondack 2017 being hosted by Turkey to attract world class exhibitors to ApiExpo2018 in Nigeria.

According to him, “this ApiExpo will bring together stakeholders in the Apiculture subsector all around Africa and it will also attract stakeholders beyond Africa to also come and participate in the exhibition. So we are expecting that the Apiculture sector will develop considerably by this Expo. What we are putting in this Expo is a investment for the future”.

Speaking further on how honey can help farmers, he said: “Apiculture is the subsector of agriculture that can actually give a tangible harvest to agriculture products, it is also a subsector that can turn around the economy of any nation because it will create job opportunities, it will increase the income of rural dwellers.

“If we can educate and encourage the rural farmers to introduce 3 to 4 boxes bee hives to one hectare of farm, at the end of the season, they will be able to compare and contrast the harvest they had the previous season without hives in their farms, they will end up introducing more hive so that the bees can pollinate their crops and they can also make money from selling the honey”.

On how the Expo will revamp the economy, Adeshina hinted “like we know, Expos attract investors into the country; it enables participating exhibitors to see the prospects of business in Nigeria. For instance, we in A and Shine produces 60 to 70 tons of honey annually and we have still been unable to meet up with the local demand, this Expo will boost awareness for people to now invest more in Apiculture.

“We want to create more raw materials which means food safety for Nigerian in the sense that people will start consuming more honey than sugar, and when bee pollinate, it is as good as reducing the amount of you spend on fertilizer to boost production, you are reducing the amount of pesticide and insecticides that are used on crops, it will ensure better crop yield that will be acceptable in the international market.”

NAP has been working round the clock to ensure the successes of all these events. In its work plan for the year, NAP will focus on capacity building, how to increase honey production in the country, survey towards establishing a good database of players in the sector, Establishment of a Pilot Modern Bee Farm and Incubation Centre, creating awareness for Improving Pollination services, Honey traceability, Residue monitoring training for honey and Third Country listing towards accessing the EU market.

According to Him, “It is the belief of NAP that the ApiExpo2018 will announce us to the world, it will create enabling environment for the development of this subsector.