Beekeeping Development

Background
In general livelihood standards in rural Ghana have not kept pace with overall economic growth and progress.
Small scale farmers wishing to improve their family’s standard of living, struggle to find profit generating opportunities
capable of helping them move beyond subsistence agriculture. Extra Mile West Africa’s Honey Production Venture (HPV)
promotes beekeeping as an income generating opportunity for low income families in rural Ghana.  

What is the Honey Production Venture (HPV)
In early 2007 Extra Mile West Africa (EMWA) began working alongside small-scale beekeepers and farmers in the Northern
Volta district by offering:Training in commercial beekeeping activity for men, women and youth.

• Enabling access to modern beehives, equipment and technology.
• Improving harvesting techniques, raw product quality and appearance and increasing harvest yields.
• Educating wild honey collectors in sustainable beekeeping and environment protection.

The objective of the project is to promote small-scale beekeeping as an income generating opportunity for low income
rural households. In time however it became apparent to project coordinators that In order for this to be achieved an
appropriate value chain for Ghanaian honey had to be established. Extra Mile West Africa began by dividing the project into 3 segments:

1. Field production.
2. 1^st stage processing and product quality control.
3. 2^nd stage processing, quality control and marketing.  

Donor collaboration
Prima Woods
Australian Government
Atlas Foods Ghana Ltd. 

As a non-profit development organization donor collaboration has been vital to our Honey Production Venture program. 
To date Prima Woods Ltd. (Accra) has provided technical and material assistance to help with:

• Improving and expanding raw product production.

Atlas Foods Ltd. was established in 2010 and received a new Ghanaian partner at the beginning of 2011; the company concerns itself with:

• Improving processing and packaging facilities.
• Market expansion and product development. 

The Australian Government’s Direct Aid Program (DAP) has provided grant capital to help with:

• Improving raw product processing.

Community support of extension services:
Extra Mile West Africa is a non-profit organization with the objective of delivering extension services to farmers. Without the help of companies like Atlas Foods, Prima Woods and programs like DAP we could not afford to carry out our operations and sustain our activities.
Therefore EMWA will continue to seek technical assistance grants, sponsors and donors with the local community.

Training center for extension officers and cooperative beekeepers.
1. Extra Mile WA wishes to expand its present extension officer training program by building a theory training school adjacent to the existing honey processing center. The school hopes to invite beekeepers in as yet untouched villages. This will add computer based training programs, hand-outs in local language and be linked to the physical processing center that is already offering hands on processing techniques to trainees. The practical training programs are carried out during the normal hive build-up and harvesting season. Whereas the theory training school will be open for instruction year round. 

Cooperative beekeepers trained in localized programs.
Our training programs not only inivte beekeepers to the center for training but also visit farmer/beekeepers in their villages and offer onsite training. This program has proved very successful, until now about 75% of all honey recieved at the processing center for marketing comes from areas further than 4-5 hours walking distance.