Kenya’s mango exports have jumped by 400 percent in the past five years, thanks in large part to a switch from chemical to bio pesticides to control fruit flies.

In the past, the troublesome insects forced mango farmers to leave a significant share of their crop on the ground or to use chemical pesticides that meant the fruit was not acceptable in many foreign import markets.

But the introduction of new methods of controlling pests using naturally occurring substances is giving mango farmers a boost.

Louis Matheka, sales manager for the exporter Mangos from Kenya, said mango production increased by 27 percent during the season that ended in April compared to a year earlier. At the same time, exports were up 30 percent. In the latest season, Kenya exported 26,000 metric tons of mangos, mostly to the Middle East.

Fruit fly spoils crops

Most of Kenya’s growers are small farmers who have struggled to make their mango crops pay because fruit fly infestations often resulted in more than half the fruit being wasted.

Erratic yields in turn made it difficult to enter and meet the requirements of formal contracts with exporters.

Meanwhile, fears of spreading fruit flies to importing countries along with high use of chemical pesticides meant the harvests were off-limits to many foreign import markets. Instead, farmers sold their fruit for lower prices at local markets.

But in recent years, companies have developed promising bio pesticide alternatives to help an estimated 60,000 Kenyan growers control fruit flies.

Project pioneers bio pesticide

One Kenyan company, Real IPM, has pioneered fruit fly control that uses a common insect-killing fungus, Metarhizium (Met) 69, that occurs naturally in the soil. Real IPM developed the system with funding from USAID and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Real IPM equips farmers with the powdered substance, which is used in traps. Flies that enter the traps are contaminated and exit the trap. They are able to contaminate other flies by grooming or mating before they die.

The system requires at least 20 traps per hectare. The fungus, which does not leave a residue because it is naturally occurring, can also be sprayed onto trees to infect larger adults or onto the soil to kill pupae.

One farmer, Henry Ngari, told Reuters he is now able to sell 90 to 95 percent of his crop. “That’s a big improvement for farmers. We were losing around half of the crop because it was infected by fruit fly,” Ngari said.

Costs reduced

The system is initially more costly than chemical pesticides. But the traps only have to bought once, compared to many applications of pesticides. The system also greatly reduces manpower necessary to control fruit flies.

Ngari said he used to employ six men per day to spray chemicals. “Now it’s just one person to put a trap in place. That could be me or my wife,” Ngari said.

According to Sunday Ekesi, head of plant health at Kenya’s International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), the use of bio pesticides is on the rise in Kenya. Companies including Dudutech, Kenya Biologics and Farmtrack Consulting also offer environmentally friendly tools to fight pests and plant diseases.

Growth in exports forecast

Experts believe bio pesticides will help Kenya’s growers further boost production and expand their export markets from the Middle East to Europe.

The United Arab Emirates imports more than 55 percent of the African nation’s mangos followed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

Jonathan Bamber, whose Burton and Bamber buys from around 100 small farmers and produces dried mangos, said Kenya could become one of the world’s top producers. “It could be a huge revenue stream for small-scale farmers, if we can develop the market and demand, as well as the quality on the supply side,” Bamber said.

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Stability is not a word often used to describe the status of small-scale farmers, particularly not those in Sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers are especially vulnerable to variable climates: should a rainy season arrive early or late, be heavier or lighter than anticipated, an entire community’s livelihood can turn to dust or be washed away in a flood. At the recent African Honey Exhibition, experts discussed the viability of beekeeping and honey production as not only a key to eradicating poverty for farmers, but as an industry that has a multitude of positive externalities, such as pollination.

The Buzz Around Town

Small scale investment has gained more traction as a viable development tool in recent years: from micro-credit enterprises in Bangladesh to projects focusing on African farm collectives, more money is being given in small scale projects than ever before. Agriculture is a challenging area in which to invest, particularly in a region now characterized by unpredictable weather, political turmoil and lack of connectivity between urban and rural areas. Beekeeping, or apiculture, has recently been identified as a potential agriculture venture that can thrive in the

African climate: in a 1990 paper for the Food and Agriculture Organization, Stephen Adjare wrote that beekeeping and honey production had long been occurring in Eastern Africa, but that they made use of antiquated techniques that inhibited expansion or growth. His points as to why Africa is ideal for beekeeping and honey production are now being echoed by development experts and economic advisors around the world.

Tropical apiculture is not only inexpensive, but it allows farmers to be self-reliant. It is not dependent upon the importation of expensive foreign equipment or experts, it does not require a beekeeper to own large amounts of land, as hives can be created on very small plots or even in a garage or shed, bees positively impact the surrounding environment through pollination and the semi-arid climates that render other crops fallow are ideal for beekeeping. According to one source, African bees are better for pollinating that European or American bees. That is because African bees emphasize colony growth over honey production, which necessitates more pollen to feed to bee larvae. In this way beekeeping may even be an excellent complementary practice for farmers with crops that require pollination, such as fruit trees.

The New Gold Standard

Kenya is an interesting example of the potential for honey production. While it is not the continent’s largest producer, it is the largest consumer. Demand exceeds the country’s production, and so tons of honey are imported from neighboring Tanzania each year. The production gap is so large, in fact, that international exportation is yet to be a viable option, despite the high demand of the United Arab Emirates for African honey. This is due in part to the small-scale nature of Kenyan apiculture.

There are currently no commercial beekeeping or honey production operations in East Africa. Small-scale farmers currently manage the sector, which has both positive and negative aspects. The most obvious positive aspect of this is that more individual farmers profit– there is no large company taking a portion of their profits. The downside is that the industry is not operating at maximum efficiency given the gap in production ability. It seems unlikely; however, that consolidating wealth produced in this industry into the hands of a corporation would prove at all beneficial for the average African farmer who turns to beekeeping as a mode of poverty prevention.

The Future of African Honey

In a 2012 video with more than 35,000 views, modern techniques for African beekeepers are explored through the development of modern hives by a local company. This video demonstrates the sustainability of hive production: not a single aspect of beekeeping is wasted, meaning fewer dollars lost in the production of new colonies. Should apiculturists be enabled to engage in modern beekeeping techniques, this could greatly benefit their honey production and greater pollination?

Unfortunately, it does not seem that African bees are immune to illness. Bees around the world have been plagued by a parasite that cut global production in half. Unlike the agriculture branches of European or American governments, there has yet to be a concerted response to this threat by African governments. Responding to such threats require expensive scientific experiments and investment.

The Money is in the Honey

Investing in modern beekeeping techniques for small-scale African farmers has enormous potential. Doing so provides economic security for individuals and their families, and has positive externalities for surrounding crops, such as fruit trees or flowers, both of which are large export industries on the continent. Investment requires careful planning; including contingency plans for occurrences such as colony die off due to parasites or extreme weather. That being said, honey may just turn out to be the golden ticket out of poverty for African farmers.

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