Mining firm Base Titanium agricultural officials have been engaging bee farmers across Kwale, offering them training and skills on venturing into the agriculture business.
Residents of Boyani village were taken through an extensive training which involved how to make traditional hives from locally available materials, training on proper bee management, establishing colonies as well as honey harvesting.
Lazarus Nzola, Base Agricultural Officer urged residents to embrace beekeeping not only for the honey but also to maximize their income from bees by exhausting the value chains available.
“Bee keeping is not only about honey, it has more than ten income generating products” said Nzola.
He said they include the harvesting and sale of wax, pollen, propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, sale of bee colonies, bee brood, specializing in rearing queen bees.
Nzola said the bee venture is part of Base Livelihood Programmes aimed at uplifting and supporting the community impacted by Base mining project.
Meanwhile the first cohort of students under the Base Titanium Scholarship Programme graduated on Friday with various degrees from Pwani University in Kilifi County.
Base had been supporting 20 students to attend Pwani University in Kilifi county as a way of providing tertiary educational opportunities to students from Kwale County and Likoni Sub-County.
Nrikah Rika from Tsimba Golini, who is a beneficiary of Base’s Scholarship Programme, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Education said “am very grateful to Base for the opportunity that it accorded me. If it wasn’t for the scholarship, I would not have been here today. I will forever be indebted to them for my educational support.”
Base has supported more than 2,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds in Kwale and Mombasa counties.
In addition to its own educational support programme, Base Titanium works with a number of local education NGOs and institutions by providing financial support to fund various other educational programmes in Kwale and Likoni sub county of Mombasa where it has a dedicated portside facility to export minerals.
By Hussein Abdullahi
