Curriculum for beekeeping in the offing

The government has announced plans to design a curriculum for beekeeping and management.

Mr Harry Kimtai, the Principal Secretary for Livestock in the Ministry of Agriculture, said the curriculum will be used by both public and private training institutions.

“We are reviewing the mandate to enhance capacity of the National Beekeeping Institute to realign its functions with modern challenges of the industry,” Mr Kimtai said during celebrations marking the World Bee Day in Nairobi.

The government will develop the curriculum in collaboration with development partners since the current training module is inappropriate and suffers from inadequate human-resource capacity, Mr Kimtai said.

He said Kenya, which now produces 25,000 metric tonnes of honey a year, has the potential to produce an annual 100,000 metric tonnes.

The government has developed a roadmap that will enable the country to produce 38,000 metric tons of honey by the year 2022, Mr Kimtai said.

He said Kenya plans to export honey to the European Union market by 2022.

“We are also pursuing honey market in China since the country has shown interest in our honey due to its quality and originality,” Mr Kimtai added.