Since the year 2020, reawakened by the consciousness of the relevance of the honeybee to our environment and for food security; and to curb all forms of threats posed against this insect recently, the United Nation sets May 20 each year aside for celebrating the honeybees globally. One would ask; why spending energy recognising, let alone celebrating this tiny insect, bee? It might interest you to know that this tiny insect is of multi-variant relevance. Its economic importance cuts across health, nutrition, industrial to environmental and ecological facets.
As negligible as it may appear, the existence of the world almost revolves around the honeybee. Little wonder it was attributed to Albert Einstein the saying: “Kill all the bees in the world, and humanity would go into extinction in four years time”. There are over 22,000 species of bees globally. Most of them produce little or no honey but the Apis melifera adansonii is the specie that yields honey profusely. It might also interest you to know that the bees are not only known for honey production. They are equally useful in so many industries like nutrition, medicine, pharmacy, textile, brewery, polish, candle to mention but a few.
The greatest of them all is the unquantifiable relevance of the bees in food security via pollination. Apart from honey which many people associate bees with, there are other byproducts of the honeybee like beeswax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, mead (honey wine), bee-venom, to mention but a few. These items are equally useful in the branch of apiculture known as apitherapy. Again, one of the beauties of honey is that it contains rich vitamins the human body needs for wellness. The secret is that plants are major source of vitamins. So, as the bees perch from a tree flowers to another, they collect and harness together, different vitamins into a final product, honey.
As we lick the honey or use it as sweetener, we are already supplying and equipping the human body with the necessary vitamins it requires to function. This same reason explains why honey has recently proven the best convalescence for soothing wounds (burns, diabetic and even internal ulcers). Further, the bees are responsible for above 80% of all pollination activities. One foraging bee can visit between 18 to 20 flowers within a minute. Little wonder they are ascribed; “as busy as the bees…”. Considering the exciting economic importance of the honeybee in providing food for man and sustaining the environment, we need to preserve and support the bees.
This is achievable through regulation of incessant bush burning and the use of pesticides and harmful herbicides in our farms, and around our immediate environment. On the other hand, we are encouraged to plant for the bees to encourage forestation than deforestation. When we plant for the bees, we are indirectly affecting human respiration as trees around us help in the human metabolic processes, as we breathe in oxygen from the plants and exhale carbon dioxide to the environment. Again, in planting trees, we help in protecting the earth’s surface against erosion and denudation. In a nutshell, a lover of the bees is a friend of nature and the environment as such persons support the ecological system.
It is all about we and ‘our common home’ as used by Pope Francis in his masterpiece encyclical Laudato Si (on the care of our common home). I see equally in beekeeping, a rich oil deposit/well our country has not tapped fully. One of the costliest petroleum pump products now is above N1,300.00 per litre. But a litre of natural pure and unadulterated honey sales from N10,000 to N12,000 per litre in Nigeria, depending on the part of the country one resides. Again, once the honeybees are in enabling environments, their ‘oil’ does not dry as they even become more productive the longer they thrive in an environment. One more beautiful thing about beekeeping is that due to the huge expanse of vegetation in Nigeria, we are not yet thinking of feeding the bees artificially. The raw materials they need are easily fetched by them. There is always one tree or the other flowering at alternate seasons in our part of the globe. That is all the bees need.
In poultry, piggery, snailry, fishery, etc, one would need to feed them at least twice daily with the pains also of cleaning their pens and ponds. Bee Engaged with the Youth The organizers of the 2024 World Bee Day thoughtfully chose this theme in consideration of the relevance of the young in societal growth and environmental development. The youth are the pivot of the society. Cicero, the philosopher once said that the “future of every empire depends so much on the education/harnessing of its youth”. The young are at the fulcrum of national development. Today, in Nigeria for instance, we have a good number of the young ones who are either not engaged or negatively engaged. There are many graduates out there looking for employment in the society but none is forthcoming.
Hence, some engage in restiveness, drugs addiction, ritual killings, kidnapping, cyber theft (yahoo and yahoo+), armed robbery, to mention but a few. Beekeeping is a large industry that can positively accommodate our youth. Apiculture can be described as a Universal set, with many subsets like honey production, processing with honeybee byproducts, construction, (beehives, smoker-below, bee-suit, iron stands, etc), apitherapy, textile works, crops pollination services, and other industrial constitutions. Thus, beekeeping can create jobs for carpenters, tailors, welders, etc. One beauty of beekeeping is that one can engage in it and still do other jobs. It does not require ones attention twenty-four hours a day like in poultry, piggery, fishery, snail farming, etc.
Another advantage of engaging in beekeeping is that it does not require much capital to start; and the result is great. We, therefore, beckon on our youth to get involved in beekeeping than wasting time and energy in activities that are detrimental to human existence and societal growth and security. Conclusion Finally, we need to be careful when we purchase honey. We have to be sure of our source as there are so many fake and adulterated honeys in the market which rather than improve, worsen our health. Visit TOBAH AGRO GLOBAL ENTERPRISE for natural pure and unadulterated honey; also for your training in beekeeping, provision of beekeeping equipment, and establishment of bee-farms.
Beekeeping is easier to start and not capital intensive. Let us join hands in protecting and preserving the bees for better ecological and environmental sustainability, good health and food security. Challenge: To mark 2024 World Bee Day, I challenge all who read this article to plant at least, a tree this raining season for us all, the bees and our environment?
• Rev. Fr. Tobias C. O. Ukeh is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Umuahia can be reached via tobiasukeh@gmail.com, 08037789825.
