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Beekeeping
With low start-up costs and minimal land and
labour requirements, beekeeping, with its long
history in Rwanda provides an important source
of income for the poor.
In 2011, advisory services were directed at improving
management and entrepreneurship at producer level, as
well as increasing overall production and quality. Our clients
included 47 cooperatives and one processing company.
SNV support focused on: business development
(mainly improving financial management, productivity
and quality); certification; access to finance; increased
production through the use of modern beehives and
beekeeping techniques; and localisation through
engaging and strengthening local capacity builders.
A deliberate effort was made to encourage cooperatives
to clean up their membership lists and focus on active
beekeepers only. This resulted in a 60% overall reduction
in membership, effectively reducing SNV’s scope of
outreach from 6,573 to 2,618 households.
To compensate, however, the production of the
remaining members increased far beyond our