On their recent trip, Fundraising & Communications Manager, Amanda Grimstead and Programmes Advisor, Ifeoma Fox met with members of the Zulunkhuni Beekeeping Group who are part of the Farming Futures Project – they are one of the most successful beekeeping groups Temwa works with. 

The group started in 2015. It was a farming practice that didn’t need much capital investment and didn’t require as much effort as some of the more labour intensive farming practices.  Temwa began working with the group in 2018, and continues to support the 10 group members. 

Initially starting with 15 locally-made beehives, the group has now expanded this to 72. In addition, Temwa provided 30 standard beehives and trained the group to make 70 more. The standard size beehives provided by Temwa produce more honey than the local, government-provided ones. The group hope to eventually have 500 standard beehives, which will enable them to raise more income and lessen their food insecurity. 

In 2017, the group harvested just 70 kilograms of honey annually. This has now risen sharply to 880 kilograms in 2024, with the support of Temwa. One of the issues they face is trying to get good value for money at markets, often having to sell more locally which can devalue the price of their honey. Organisations buying honey and offering a much better price generally want a production of a minimum of 1,000 kilograms.  With the new beehives planned to be built, this should be an achievable goal, allowing the group to generate more income.

In the future, the group hopes to get their honey certified and registered with the Malawi Bureau Of Standard. Once they are certified, with the help of Temwa, they can increase their income and use their profits to buy more land. This will allow the group to diversify, by planting crops such as Irish potatoes. The profits made from selling these crops can be reinvested into more beehives. 

The group reported that current honey sales have allowed them to pay the secondary school fees for 6 children,  purchase fertilisers for farming which supports households, buy work tools, and even construct a house under the Chief’s guidance. Money made from the honey sales is also being used to support a school feeding programme at the local Usingini Primary School where children are now being provided with porridge each day and don’t go hungry.

The group chair and village Chief  told us “We are very grateful to Temwa for the support they have given us which has included teaching and helping them learn how to make new standard beehives which produce more honey. As a Chief, he sees Temwa comes often to the area and provides support to community members including on food and livestock so thank you.”

Find out more about our agriculture projects here.