Press release…
Support to Beekeepers in Konya and Karaman from FAO!
FAO distributed 400 bee hives and materials to producers in Konya and Karaman provinces as part of the “Sustainable Land Management and Climate Friendly Agriculture” project.
June 25, 2020; Ankara –
400 bee hives and equipments provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and supplied within the ‘Sustainable Land Management and Climate Friendly Agriculture’ project, in the process of The Ereğli Integrated Forest Management Plan of the region, prepared in 2018 and 2019, were distributed to the beneficiaries in the villages determined during the field studies.
Beekeeping has an important function in terms of protecting and improving biological diversity and ensuring food safety, as well as generating direct income for the local people. These services of beekeeping, other than honey and other bee products, are the natural result of the pollination of the bee placed from flower to flower. 85% of the pollination in nature is carried out by honey bees.
However producers and consumers are not conscious enough about other bee products other than honey (pollen, royal jelly, bee cake, wax, propolis, bee venom, son, queen bee). The production of pollen and propolis from bee products other than honey has increased in the last five years in Turkey. Yet, the production amounts are very low. Bees are not benefited sufficiently to increase the yield through pollination in agricultural production. In this framework, prior to the distribution activity, the beneficiaries were given daily basic beekeeping training on the importance of beekeeping, conditions for technical beekeeping, bee diseases, bee products and benefits to human life by Nebi Koca, the Chairman of Gaziantep Beekeepers’ Association.