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By IPS Correspondents LONDON, Aug 31 (IPS) - In 1982 there were around half-a-million traditional beehives in Iraq, playing a key part in the country's rural development. A decade later, because of a plague of mites and the effects of the 1991 Gulf War, there were just 500 left .
In the economic crisis that blights Iraq, still under punitive U.N. sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, has seen hunger increase - especially among children.
The contribution of bees to food production and nutrition, both by pollinating food crops and by producing honey, is seen as vital in the struggle against malnutrition. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is supporting a project in Iraq to bring back the honeybee population.
The project aims to help beekeepers establish sustainable beekeeping techniques and adequate hygiene practices and has restored around 30,000 hives, bringing more than just fresh honey back to the Iraqi dinner plate. ''Economically, bees are 50 times mor e valuable as pollinators than they are as honey producers,'' says Nicola Bradbear, the FAO consultant in charge.
The Iraqi Beekeepers' Association estimates that 90 percent of the country's 500,000 and more honeybee colonies had been lost to the Asian predatory mite Varroa jacobsoni between 1995 and 1987.
Recovery was complicated by the 1991 Gulf War, and when it ended only 500 hives remained. The fighting prevented beekeepers from caring for their hives, many of which were broken up for timber, and their honey plundered.
FAO and the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs have funded the 200,000 dollar 'Emergency Assistance Project to Restore Honeybee Populations for Crop Pollination and Honey Production in Iraq.' Although it is difficult to quantify the reduction in crop pollination by bees in Iraq, poorly formed fruit is on sale in local markets, a typical sign of inadequate pollination. In Mosul, north of Baghdad, people have been employed to pollinate gourd crops manually because natural pollination is inadequate.
Bradbear, who returned from a second visit to Iraq in early July, told IPS in a phone interview last week, that progress has been made in helping beekeepers treat diseases and develop sustainable management techniques.
A new threat has emerged, however, which has destroyed much of the progress that had been made since the end of the Gulf War, the so-called 'crawling disease', first reported in early 1994 had by 1995, considerably reduced the 30,000 bee colonies re-esta blished under the project.
Crawling disease is believed to be caused by secondary viral or other infections and results in severe weakening of the bees and loss of honey production.
The aim of the project is to promote sustainable beekeeping practices so that Iraq will not have to rely on continuous imports of medicine and basic supplies to keep disease situations like this one under control, explains Bradbear. A collection of technical books on beekeeping has been supplied, as well as chemical treatment, medication and technical information for treatment, rollers, beeswax and foundation making equipment.
A national consultant is to be appointed to ensure that apiculturists across the country make proper use of the information. ''Iraqis regard honey as a special, precious food,'' Bradbear says.
She has also been involved in helping to protect bees in India. The honey industry in southern India has been decimated by the Thai sacbrood virus (TSBV). FAO is helping to combat this through a combination of training, extension work and beekeeping tech niques developed in Asia.
The Karnataka region used to be a big producer of honey. But over the past five years up to 90 percent of indigenous Apis cerana bee colonies in the state have been wiped out. Beekeepers, who once earned a decent local income of more than 2,000 dollars a year from Apis cerana, are now subsisting as farm labourers or itinerant workers.
FAO has set up a Technical Cooperation Programme to help reestablish the beekeeping industry in Karnataka as a source of income for landless farmers.
The programme aims to teach local partners how to manage Apis cerana effectively, particularly how to continue keeping this species in the presence of TSBV. It is also meant to encourage partners to begin working with the mainly nomadic wild honey collectors, who by some estimates harvest well over 50 per cent of the state's honey from wild colonies of Apis dorsata.
The programme draws on Vietnamese experience in managing TSBV. Six Indian extension agents and beekeepers will be sent to the Bee Research and Development Centre in Hanoi for training.
Experience in Asia over the past 20 years shows that -- with careful management -- TSBV-resistant Apis cerana colonies begin to emerge within 10 years of the disease's outbreak. There are already signs of a recovery of the Apis cerana population in Karna taka. (END/ips/jmp/mom/rj/97)
