NATBA Bee

Crop productivity in Ghana is very low as a result of poor pollination services. 

Farmers are therefore poor as they earn very little. The youth are therefore not attracted to farming and are unemployed.

We train smallholder farmers to appreciate the role of pollinator services in crop production. We supply beekeeping equipment such as beehives and bee suits to the farmers to establish apiaries on their crop farms to increase pollination services and crop productivity.

The farmers earn more money from the increase in crop productivity. The also harvest the bee products such as honey, beeswax, and propolis to sell to earn additional income.

Beekeeping is identified as a poverty alleviation enterprise and for livelihoods. Crop farmers anywhere could use bees to pollinate and increase crop productivity and earn more money.

Global demand for honey is over $7 billion and the youth can take advantage to make money.

Crop productivity in Ghana is very low. Smallholder farmers, who produce 80% of the total food production in Ghana, have very low education and are not given regular agronomic training. The farmers are ignorant of the role of pollinators in crop farming and agrochemicals indiscriminately killing the pollinators. This is especially pronounce in the cocoa farming where the midges, the pollinators of cocoa, are almost extinct in Ghana and farmers are doing hand pollinating

Globally over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty and earn not more than $1.95 a day. In Ghana, youth unemployment is 12% and under unemployment rate more than 50%, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We address these problems by giving the farmers regular agronomic and sustainable farming practices. We train them to appreciate the role of pollinators in crop farming and identify the various pollinators for specific crops they cultivate.

We train them to keep bees on their farms to increase pollination services and double crop productivity, also produce bee products such as honey, beeswax, propolis, to sell.

We supply them beekeeping equipment such as bee hives and bee suits to establish apiaries on their crop farms. 

We also train especially the women and youth to produce natural cosmetics using honey, beeswax, herbs and fruits. 

We establish rural enterprises and employ women and youth in the production and sale of the bee products and cosmetics.

The farmers earn more money from the increase in crop productivity, sale of the bee products such as honey and beeswax, and sale of the natural cosmetics.

We  plant economic trees such as cashew, mango, and moringa, and promote pollinator conservation and biodiversity.

Ghana has 5.6 million smallholder farmers. These farmers have low formal education with little or no knowledge in role of pollinators in crop production. Crop productivity is very low and the farmers are extremely poor.

We train smallholder farmers in rural communities  to adopt sustainable farming practices and appreciate the role of pollinators in crop productivity. 

We supply beekeeping equipment such as beehives and bee suits to establish apiaries on their crop farm to increase pollination services and crop productivity and also produce bee products such as honey and beeswax to sell and make additional income.

We also train particularly women and youth in rural communities to produce natural cosmetics using honey, beeswax, and herbs, as income generating activity and employment avenue.

Smallholder farmers produce 80% of total food production in Ghana. They are mostly rural dwellers and are extremely poor. They have very low formal education and are ignorant of sustainable farming practices.

We train these rural smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices and to appreciate the role of pollinators in crop farming.

We support them to plant tree crop such as cashew and mango, and supply them beehives to keep bees on their farms to increase crop productivity and harvest honey and beeswax.

They make more money due to increase in crop productivity and sale of honey and beeswax.

We were incorporated in the year 2011. We currently operate in various communities in Ghana including Nkoranza in the Nkoranza Souyh District, Boaben and Fiema villages in the Nkoranza North District, Techiman in the Techiman South Municipality, Tuobodom in the Techiman North District, Kintampo in the Kintampo North Municipality and Odumasi in the Manya Krobo District. 

The effectiveness of honeybees is due to their great number, their social life and their ability to pollinate a broad variety of different flowers. A colony can consist of 20-80 000 bees, and they will normally be visiting flowers over a distance of two kilometers when they are collecting pollen and nectar.

It is estimated that about one third of all plants or plant products eaten by humans are directly or indirectly dependent on bee pollination. More than half of the world’s diet of fat and oil comes from oilseeds such as cotton, rape, sunflower, coconut, groundnut and oil palm. Even though some of these
have special pollinators belonging to other types of insects, these plants all depend on, or benefit from bee pollination to some extent.

Training smallholder farmers to appreciate the role of beekeeping in agriculture, supply them beekeeping equipment such as beehive and bee suits to establish apiaries on their crop farm to increase crop productivity so the farmers can earn more money when they sell their crops  and at the same time harvest the bee products such as honey, beeswax and propolis to sell for additional income, is highly beneficial to the farmers, the environment, and consumers.

We further train the women and youth to produce natural cosmetics using  honey, beeswax and herds to produce natural cosmetics such as liquid hand washing soap, body and hair cream.

We establish rural enterprises and employ women and youth in the production and sale of bee products and natural cosmetics.

We have 5,000 registered members from various parts of Ghana.

We have trained 1,500 smallholder farmers and supported them with beehives to establish apiaries on their crop farms.

By June 2022 we plan to train and support additional 500 farmers.

By 2026 we plan to train and support additional 5,000 smallholder farmers.

Employ women and youth in the production and sale of bee products and natural cosmetics. Beekeeping increase crop productivity and also produces honey and beeswax to sell so farmers earn more money. This aligns with SDG 1.1, No poverty. The farmers move out of extreme poverty and earn more than $4 a day.

Promote beekeeping to increase crop productivity. This aligns with SDG2.3. double agriculture productivity. We supply beehives and bee suits to the farmers to establish apiaries on their crop farms.

Train and support smallholder farmers to plant more tree cops and integrate beekeeping into their tree crop farming. This aligns with SDG 15.5,reduce lose of habitats and biodiversity. Facilitate the acquisition of tree crops seedlings by farmers to plant and supply them bee hives and bee suits to farmers to integrate beekeeping into their crop farming.

1. Management team- 5
2. Full-time staff - 48
3. Part-time staff - 240
4. Volunteers - 25

We hold regular management meetings and communicate daily either face to face, via telephone or zoom meeting. Each management team member makes input into the decision making process and we share responsibility. Key team members include:

1. Mr Richard Okoe worked with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for 10 years before moving into the banking industry. Whilst working with the Nkoranza-Kwabre Rural Bank as the Head of Credit he organized the beekeepers and gave them input credit under the USADF sponsored credit support to the Nkoranza-Kwabre Rural Bank Ltd. He worked in the microfinance sector for 20 years and now manages NATBA full time. He holds a National Diploma in Animal Science from the University of Ghana. He has attended a lot of courses included including international course in agriculture at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 2019.
2. Mr Joshua Antwi, has 10 years’ experience as a beekeeper and trainer. He holds a Bsc. Degree in Agribusiness. He is the lead trainer for NATBA. He is also a trainer for BeesAbroad, an international NGO of the United Kingdom, promoting beekeeping in developing countries.
3. Mrs Amina Zakaria is the lead trainer in cosmetics production and coordinator of women activities. She has 15 years banking experience and entrepreneurship. She holds a Bsc. In Economics.
4. Miss Joana Paintsil is the Secretary. She has 6 years’ experience as an entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of SPICE Cash, an enterprise that sells roasted and spiced cashew.

We committed to gender equality. Our management team is made up of 3 women,2 men.

NATBA Bee has also created Women and youth in Beekeeping(WYN-BG) which is dedicated to assisting women and youth to enter into tree crop farming and take beekeeping as a business.

WYN-BG is headed by a woman. It was selected among 50 youth enterprises featured in the United Nation's SDSN 2020 Youth report, see link below:

https://issuu.com/sdsnyouth/docs/ysr2020_r_9c277160c38968

• Receive access to funding in grants and investments, including through prizes and Solve Innovation Future. At least $10,000 is awarded to every selected team. This year, there’s $2 million in pre-committed funding to selected teams.

• Join a class of impressive peers that act as trusted support group, offering inspiration and guidance

• Join a powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries and sectors, with dedicated spaces to meet year-round and during Solve’s flagship events such as Solve at MIT.  

• Access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks. 

• Receive monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice. 

• Gain exposure in the media and at conferences.

• Access relevant in-kind resources such as software licenses and legal services from Solve Member and partner organizations. 

Business model - We will like to receive support to further develop our business model and effectively market our products to the local and international community.

Financial - We will like to receive support to properly keep our books and to receive a reliable accounting software to record our operations.

Products/Service Distribution - We need support in marketing and distribution

Technology - We need technology to digitalize our operations and monitor our beehives.

1. German Beekeepers Association - Give us technical training in beekeeping and equipment supply support.
2. Kiva - Give interest free loans to smallholder farmers to expand their lands.
3. Amazon - Digital training and marketing of our products

We will use the prize funding to train more smallholder farmers especially women in sustainable farming practices and to acquire land to plant tree crops such as cashew, mango, and citrus. We will supply them beehives and bee suits as well as smokers to integrate beekeeping into their farm to increase crop productivity to earn more money and also harvest the bee products such as honey and beeswax to sell for additional income to move them extreme poverty.