Makana Meadery Beekeeping Project

The meadery’s reputation for beekeeping in the Grahamstown area spurred a demand for these skills in the community. They then started offering courses on a hobbyist and developmental level in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. Upon hearing about the imparting of beekeeping skills to the community, local NGOs partnered with them and the meadery started offering training to various skills development projects. They found that training potential beekeepers was a good way of creating honey for them to sell to the ever-demanding international markets, whilst empowering the communities with income-generating skills. The meadery offers comprehensive beekeeping training and provides a manual, follow-up mentoring services three times a year, and the provision of affordable beekeeping equipment. The meadery further offers marketing advantages and access to developing markets for rural beekeepers. 

Innovation

The project is environmentally sustainable as all beehives are made from alien invasive trees, processed into wood and beehives, and all fuel at the meadery is Biodiesel produced in-house. The meadery offers a mechanism through which unemployed people can access developed economies where specialty honey is in demand. Beekeeping can be a very cost and environmentally effective mechanism as opposed to vineyards because honey in the production of Mead uses less water than grapes in wine. Combining this strategy in rural communities proves effective in creating employment whilst protecting the environment.

Effectiveness

Since 2005, Makana Meadery has trained 86 people upon request by various NGOs in the province. These NGOs include the Bell Beekeeping Project sponsored by FAMSA, Khuseluncedo Development Centre sponsored by Breadline Africa, Phekula Group sponsored by Mvula Trust and GADRA (Grahamstown Area District Relief Association). Several farms and nature reserves in the area have also funded training workshops for their employees, totaling on 42 people. Various groups have come back for follow-up mentoring sessions and has totaled on 77 since 2005. These groups include the Grahamstown Correctional Services group sponsored by the Presidents Award and other NGOs and Nature Reserve groups. Their beekeeping equipment is made by community groups such as the physically disabled and community seamstresses in association with GADRA.

Poverty Impact

Beekeeping and the production of honey is not detrimental to the environment and is a good income-generating skill for unemployed women and grandmothers that head households, which is common in the Grahamstown area. Now people are able to learn a skill that can be honed at their homes to start their own businesses. 

Sustainability

Each training group is funded by their relevant projects. Beekeeping is not a quick fix solution, learning how to produce quality honey is a sustained process dependant on external factors like the weather and theft, affecting the sustainability of the project. However, there are certain groups they have trained like the Bolotwa Farm group that have now opened up their own bank account, having received R800 directly from the Meadery. 

Replication

The Makana Meadery Plan encourages honey production in uncontaminated areas, such as the rural areas. Thus this project is ideally suited for replication in impoverished rural communities, where the need for income-generating skills are high.

Partnerships

• Various provincial NGOs
• Local farms
• Local nature reserves