Beekeeping has a long history across the African continent. Ethiopia presumably has the longest history in beekeeping and marketing. The long history of beekeeping in Africa is due to its role in providing products which are useful to mankind. Honey is the most known beekeeping product which is used as food, medicine, raw material for making local brew, and for several other traditional uses such as in festivities and ceremonies during births and marriages (traditional symbolic e.g. for good luck and love) and paying bride price in various tribes such as the Wamaasai. In Ethiopia, beekeeping has so far been regarded as a way of earning income for resource poor farmers in rural areas. In most of Africa countries, about 90% of the communities undertake beekeeping using traditional methods. The method is characterized by use of poor equipment and poor methods of harvesting, processing and packaging of products.
Tanzania is amongst the world¶s top 20 honey producing countries. In Tanzania, beekeeping was practiced in a form of honey hunting until when Germans introduced the idea of keeping bee colonies by using beehives in 19th century. Traditional beehives dominate the beekeeping sector in Tanzania. The most common traditional hives (also called fixed comb hives) are log and bark hives. Beekeeping in Tanzania is mostly conducted in miombo woodlands, the major areas of honey production being Tabora, Dodoma, Singida, Iringa, Rukwa and Katavi regions. In the 1990s, beekeeping gained attention from the government and other stakeholders which led to adoption of Beekeeping Policy of 1998 and establishment of formal Beekeeping Section within the Forestry and Beekeeping Division (FBD) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT). This was followed by development of National Beekeeping Programme of 2001 and enactment of Beekeeping Act of 2002 as instruments for implementing the National Beekeeping Policy. The main emphasis in the policy and these tools include stakeholders¶ participation in the planning, management, ownership and sustainable utilization of bee resources for poverty eradication, improved biodiversity development and environmental conservation, improvement of the quality and quantity of bee products and improvement of revenue collection.
Beekeeping is a dynamic industry for some and a part-time hobby for others. It is a diverse enterprise, one that allows its practitioners to be carpenters (assembling hive equipment), botanists (knowing bloom cycles), farmers (honey producers and crop pollination providers), and even business men/women (managing employees and marketing one’s products), all among other jobs. Given the multifaceted business that is beekeeping, Forestry and Beekeeping Division (FBD) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has a mandate to regulate all components of beekeeping in Tanzania.
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