Nigeria not producing enough honey for local consumption

Ademola Adesina is the chairman of the Nigerian Apiculture Platform, a federal government initiative aimed at increasing bee-product and pollination services. In this interview with Fatima Muktar, he explains the potentials, the reality and challenges of the honey value chain in Nigeria. PT: What are you doing to harness the potentials in the Nigerian honey value-chain? Adesina: There are numerous potentials in beekeeping not just for value-chain, not just for honey, but right from the production. In the beehives is a chain of medicinal produce from royal jelly to the bee wax that are even more lucrative than the honey itself but very few of our farmers want to take advantage. Just the input supply in the honey value chain has potential for job creation. Tailors will have bee suits to sew, the carpenters will have hives, the fabricators will have processing equipment, the candle makers will have candles to produce and so forth. A significant value in the chain is the pollination ...