The Technical Secretariat for Apiculture (STA) brought together the key players in the beekeeping sector in Burkina on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 in Manga in the Center-South to present the Technical and Economic Reference System (RTE) for honey production. This document was developed within the framework of the West Africa Competitiveness Support Project, Burkina Faso component (PACAO-BF).

Provide players in the honey sector with a condensed data document, aimed at supporting players and improving the profitability of their production. Such is the challenge of the technical and economic reference system for the production of honey. The November 17 workshop is the channel through which the technical secretariat for beekeeping (STA) wants to popularize the information in the reference system in order to allow it to be appropriated by beekeepers.

Goal achieved, one might say. “Our members contributed to the development of the document through their experience and their daily lives. It will therefore be easier for them to apply the recommendations of this standard,” reassured Désiré Marie Yaméogo, president of the Burkina honey interprofession. For him, the appropriation of information from the repository will not be a difficult task for beekeepers. It is therefore confident about the dissemination of information to all players in the sector; the first persons in charge being present at the workshop, they will be responsible for sending the information back to the base.

Desire Marie Yameogo, president of the honey interprofession of Burkina

For the occasion, there were around fifty people, regional managers of the honey interprofession, actors from the General Directorate of Animal Production and Statistics of Burkina and members of the Center for the Promotion of Village Agriculture, to take part in the workshop.

As for the content of the document (reference), it highlights the rate of colonization of the hives (by placing a hive what is the percentage of colonization), the average quantity of harvest when it is a modern hive and when it is about a traditional hive and finally the part of the wax in the raw honey, according to the nature of the hive, etc.

Dasmané Traoré, head of the beekeeping sustainable development department at the Technical Secretariat for Apiculture.

The drafting of the text followed a rigorous process. “The development of this reference system followed several stages,” says Dasmané Traoré, head of the beekeeping sustainable development department at the Technical Secretariat for Apiculture (STA). First, a scoping meeting which made it possible to draw up the sheets for the survey to be carried out among beekeepers.

The subdivision of Burkina into three production zones to take account of their affinities. This is the eastern zone comprising the regions of the East, Center-East and Center-South; the Center zone which groups together the regions of the Centre, the Sahel, Centre-North, the North, the Central Plateau and the Centre-West, and finally the West zone grouping together the Hauts-Bassins, the Boucle du Mouhoun, the Cascades and the Southwest.

"These areas were created in connection with the similarities that exist between the different regions, so that the results obtained can correspond," said Dasmané Traoré. In each area, he continues, “10 beekeepers have been chosen, of which the first five work exclusively on traditional hives and the other five on modern hives. The results that came out of it made it possible to make averages for each zone and an average at the national level on the basis of which the actors can rely to carry out their activities”.

Workshop participants capture the occasion by posing

About 1 billion CFA francs from the PACAO-BF Project for the honey sector

The PACAO project, funded by the European Union, operates in the 15 ECOWAS countries plus Mauritania, informs Saidou Didier Lonfo, in charge of operations and monitoring-evaluation of PACAO-BF. Its component in Burkina, he adds, covers three sectors: oil mills, honey and solar energy. "It is for the operationalization of the program that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Burkina Faso (CCI-BF) has surrounded itself with specialized structures, including the various support links of the actors of the beneficiary sectors" adds Didier Longo.

The participants

Issoufou Nana, technical secretary for beekeeping, explains that the technical secretariat for beekeeping (STA) deals with a component of capacity building, implementation of the monitoring plan and support for the interprofession. honey to carry out activities that contribute to the competitiveness of Burkinabè honey at the level of the sub-region and at the international level. "For the honey sector, it is about 1 billion CFA francs which is devoted by PACAO-BF, to the promotion of the sector" he informs.

Issoufou Nana, Technical Secretary for Beekeeping

Coronavirus doing, the activities of 2020 are concentrated in the fourth quarter of the year. After this workshop, it will be a question of the continuation of activities such as study trips to leading centers, training and information on the physico-chemical characteristics of honey and labeling rules, etc. "There are a certain number of activities, about ten in number, given that we are at the end of the year, some will be brought back to 2021" specifies Issoufou Nana.