Livelihood Diversification

ESSA aims to focus on the potentiality in diversifying livelihoods in pastoral areas focusing on such livelihoods, which would maintain or enhance tree cover in arid and semi-arid landscapes. Such are beekeeping in which pollen and nectar from flowers are needed for honey production, and use of products trees, and other vegetation types, both native and exotic invasive species. The innovative aspect of bee research in ESSA project is grounded on stingless bee keeping, as one potential alternative livelihood option for pastoralist women and youth. There are currently 12 species of stingless bees reported in Kenya and five species in Ethiopia, which are found in a wide range of habitats from humid rainforest to the dry savannah from tropical, sub-tropical to semi-arid regions. Stingless bees are easy to handle and adopt because they do not sting humans or livestock, like honey bees often do. Stingless bees also play an important role in forest cover conservation, reforestation and rejuvenation by foraging on and pollinating different tree species, such as Acacia sp., Albizia sp., and Combretum sp. Stingless bees also pollinate different grasses important for livestock keepers, such as Napier grass, as well as food plants, such as tomato, and eggplant, and fruit trees, such as mango, papaya and passion fruit. Beekeeping can provide additional income from honey and other beehive products to help buffer pastoralists’ livestock losses during droughts, improve their nutritional security, and empower women through alternative livelihood generation.

We aim to increase knowledge on the impact of landscape on honey bee and stingless bee productivity, and hence the livelihood improvement of agro-pastoral communities. Bee colonies’ population dynamics and honey production are, amongst others, affected by the amount, quality and diversity of available melliferous plants. Forests and savannah (semi-arid) ecosystem with mass-flowering plants (e.g. Acacia ssp. trees) provide excellent forage resources for beekeeping. Locally available forage for bees (both honeybees and stingless bees) has not been studied in detail on the African continent. Placement of hives with respect to the supportive nature of the environment can have positive effects on productivity of hives. An environmental suitability mapping for foraging resources using remotely sensed variables can close this gap in knowledge directly promoting beekeeping establishment among the pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities. Secondly, ESSA will improve understanding of swarm attraction methods to increase hive colonization rates for honeybees and stingless bees which contributes to the reproduction of bees at the colony level. Swarm trapping will be done by setting out traps in strategic locations and attracting the bees to the trap while the bees are searching for a suitable nest site. One of the most reliable methods of catching a swarm of bees is to lure them with a scent. Depending on every local situation, different types of substances are used as a lure to attract honey bees to hives, building on the tradition held in almost every society. However, very few scientific reports on the substance and their efficiency have been reported.

ESSA also aims to develop the use of baobab (Adanosia digitata) fruits, Aloe vera and resin and gums from Acacia ssp., Commiphora ssp. and Boswellia ssp. tree species from Acacia-Commiphora woodlands. Furthermore, as it is very difficult to eradicate prosopis (Prosopis julifora), we aim to develop a development of briquettes from it in order to conserve the native tree species from charcoal production and to develop animal feeds from prosopis seeds. The project also aims to monitor another invasive species, Ipomea ssp., which is the most undesirable forage species for grazing livestock.

Furthermore, in order to enhance dryland agriculture and search for adaptation mechanisms of pastoralism and agro-pastoralism, the project will evaluate different water harvesting (open and tied ridges and zai pits) technologies that will result in the highest crop yield across seasons both for crops and forage production for livestock.