Smallholder farmers in the Masikili community in Hwange have incorporated beekeeping in their operations. The bees benefit from crop flowers and clean water while the farmers are not only getting honey but protection from wild animals that are abundant in the area.
This symbiotic relationship does not just benefit the smallholder farmers but also the ecosystem by allowing local communities to coexist with wildlife such as baboons and elephants.
Msungwe Sithole (42), a farmer and Permaculture Teacher with Soft Foot Alliance (SFA) says baboons and elephants had become a major cause of conflict in the community. Msungwe says local communities were becoming hostile towards the animals because of the threats of food insecurity as a result of crop damage by the animals.
“Elephants and baboons destroy crops but as Soft Foot Alliance we want to build a relationship between people and wild animals. We started the programme in 2016 as a coping mechanism as bees provide security against crop damage by wild animals,” says Sithole.
Priviledge Tembo (28), one of the bee keepers in the community says that beehives were strategically set up to protect their community garden and that the integration of bee keeping with the community garden has put the community at ease and improved food security.
“Elephants and baboons used to invade our gardens and damage the crops, but these bees are now deterring the animals from getting into the gardens. This has improved our food security and wild animals now avoid roaming close to our gardens,” says Priviledge.
Elias Ncube (65) the Training Manager for African Centre for Holistic Management (ACHM) says human activities were destroying the landscape and forcing animals to encroach into human territories resulting in increased frequencies of human-wildlife conflict.
“Overgrazing, bush fires and cropping practices (ploughing) create the greatest environmental challenges. It is imperative that we promote the adoption of agroecology so as to reduce the problem of human-wildlife conflict,” says Elias.
Priviledge says beekeeping has not only reduced human-wildlife conflict but it is also reducing deforestation.
“People used to cut down trees but since we started keeping bees, the number of trees in our area has increased, and this is good because we live in a very hot area,” she says.
Msungwe says although the community is realising benefits of bee-keeping, more work still needs to be done.
“The challenge that we have is that bees take time to colonise the beehives because of limitations in availability of flowering plants. We planted marigolds which bloom all year round to counter this but there is need for diverse plant species for us to have more benefits,” Msungwe adds.