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„I think bee keeping is fairly an easy project to maintain compared to others like crop growing. I started with local materials, the labour input was not intensive, so the initial cost was low. And the returns started coming immediately.“
Das Leben als Imker
Who belongs to your family / who is living with you?
I have a typical African family. It has my wife, and 10 of my biological children. I also take care of 5 other children of the extended family, one of whom is an orphan.
How has bee farming changed your life?
This thing has changed my life economically. I now earn income annually from bee farming. It is fairly good money which helps me to handle things like school fees for my children, medical expenses and generally I am able to take care of my family.
What does being a bee farmer mean to you?
In the beginning, I was just looking at it as a local thing. But after getting knowledge I now realize that being a bee farmer means a lot. It means you are producing an important product which even helps people in many ways. You are also protecting a very important insect which helps other farmers nearby. Then you are also protecting trees. Now you can see that it means a lot.
What is the most important thing in your life?
For me, the most important thing in my life is to keep good relationship with people. That is all.
What would you like to change in your life?
I would wish to live in a better house with a big lounge for my visitors, have a better means of transport, I mean have a car, yeah, and generally be happy.
What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
My biggest challenge now is that I don’t have big land. I would love to have a big land where I can do other projects like tree planting, growing crops on a large scale etc etc. Now that I know the importance of beekeeping, I would really wish to acquire bigger land to integrate this project with other agricultural activities.
How do I plan to overcome this?
Well, well…, I need money to overcome this. So, I think I really need to scale up my bee keeping project, increase production and earn better money, plus other alternatives, then acquire the land. Hopefully, I will get that money.
What do you do to enjoy yourself?
I don’t drink alcohol…., you know some people drink to enjoy themselves. So, usually I would take my family out for a leisure evening, and sometimes I visit friends, yeah, that’s when I have the time.
What would you do if you had one year off?
If I had 1 year off…ahhhh……that’s a long time. Well, I would first thank God for that kind of chance. Then, I would probably want to use that time to take my family out for a trip, or generally a tour. I would also want to visit friends in other parts of the world, especially to share experiences in bee keeping.
