Lira Farmer "The sweetness in bee keeping"
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| Mr. Bosco Odong posing with his Bee hives. |
The twenty-year old war in Northern Uganda left many homes destroyed and people’s
lives devastated. But Mr. Bosco Odong, a farmer located in Peyau Village, Roromero
Parish, Aromo sub-county in Lira District always passionately hung on to a dream,
inspired by the sweet memories of one day returning to his home in peace.
“We had nothing. This is the only home I have and could not keep away.
I used to sneak from the camp and come back here just to see how my home was.
It had grown bushy but decided to start with bee keeping,” says Odong.
Odong started by putting a pot under a tree to trap bees. He would then sneak
out of the camp to transfer the colonized pot to a more appropriate place for
the bees to make honey. However when the insurgency intensified, he abandoned
the enterprise completely.
However when he came out of the camp in 2006, he joined a farmer’s group
for trainings in better agricultural practices. His group was in the same year
identified by the NAADS officials for further trainings in the better agronomical
practices.
Today, Odong is a model farmer and has benefited from modern bee-hives, a bee
smoker, gumboots and hart brook. “I now harvest and sell honey for income,”
he said.
“Bees are easy to look after. They are not affected by the drought or
disease. From bees I have been able to buy an Ox plough and expanded my fields.
Before, I was using a hand hoe and cultivated a small area,” he said.
Last season, Odong harvested about 370 kilos of honey and earned about sh1,780,000.
On average he sells a kilo at sh5,000. Additionally, the by-products from
the bees are used as an herbal treatment for skin diseases, wounds and tuberculosis
among others.
“Bathing a young baby with honey leaves the baby smelling fresh and with
a smooth skin,” he said.
Odong is happy with the government’s NAADS program and said while there
are still very few farmers who have benefited, the little money is still worthwhile.
When we extract honey, we need to process and package it. I hope in future,
I will increase my earnings and purchase a honey processing machine to bring
in more income. However, keeping bees is not hard work. You just keep on harvesting
and make money,” he said.
