In parts of South Sudan, honey is providing a bit of hope for the future. Barbara Lewis reports at Reuters that the charity Honey Care Africa has invested $1 million in the country, helping farmers earn more than $75,000 from beekeeping and benefiting 400 families.
“A harvest of honey from the equatorial forests of South Sudan will help its struggling poor and, through the pollination of bees, improve the nation’s crop yields, those involved say.
“Spring production over the coming weeks is expected to deliver 60 tons, double the volume of an initial batch of exports last year to Kenya.
“South Sudan’s honey harvests had suffered because decades of fighting closed off the former main trade route through the north.
” ‘Honey production is not a panacea. We’re not trying to save the country or eliminate the conflict, but we do want to do our part,’ Madison Ayer, head of the development charity Honey Care Africa, told Reuters.
“Honey Care Africa has been working since 2013 in South Sudan, where it sees potential to collect honey from bees immune to the problems that have depleted colonies in the United States and to a lesser extent in Europe.
“The charity has worked in Kenya for a decade, but droughts can be a problem for honey-making there, so it sought to expand. …
” ‘When I get the money from the honey, I pay the school fees of my children. I buy other things like sugar, tomatoes, onions. I keep some money with me for emergencies in case my children get sick,’ Lilian Sadia James, one of the South Sudanese beekeepers working with Honey Care, says.”
Photo: David W. Cerny/Reuters
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 