Nation Building Through Honeybees in Afghanistan

A beekeeper in the Dara district of Afghanistan’s Panjshir province tends to one of his hives.


What colony collapse disorder?

BAGRAM AIRFIELD (Afghanistan, Sept. 15, 2009) – In an effort to increase agricultural productivity and boost economic capacity, 450 families throughout Afghanistan’s Panjshir province were supplied with training and materials to operate and manage their own honey production businesses.


The program, sponsored by the province’s agriculture ministry, began in July 2008 with the delivery of 900 bee boxes called “lower deep supers,” or brood chambers, complete with a queen bee and a starter colony.


Initially, starter colonies produce only enough honey to survive, but as the colonies continue to grow, they produce excess honey that can be harvested. This natural progression requires an “excluder” for the queen, “deep upper supers” for the bees and additional training for the beekeepers.


“The deep uppers are where the bees store the excess honey that will be harvested and will allow the queen growing room for the colony to keep them from swarming to another location,” said Greg Schlenz, a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative to the provincial reconstruction team. “The training is necessary to ensure understanding in bee colony development and use of received materials.”


Local residents said they had no recollection of a substantial honeybee population ever existing in the province. Abdulla Shah, a lifelong resident of the valley, said Dara district had some honeybee hives prior to the team’s arrival, but doesn’t know what happened to them.


“I remember seeing the hives and the farmers selling honey in Dara about five years ago,” Shah said. “But, I don’t remember them anywhere else in Panjshir, not even as a child.”

Of course the bees pollinate the local areas and generaly contribute the local ecosystem, in addition to providing a product to sell on the market.