Their cosmopolitan distribution, multipurpose nature and relative simplicity in managment combine to make bees a natural agricultural supplement for many types of farm system in developing countries. In this page we will adress several issues concerning the application of beekeeping in development projects. Given the great diversity among bees and beekeepers, it will not be possible for us to cover the apicultue of every culture, country or variety of bee. Instead we will focus on some general topics, and provide supplemenatry material for each of those topics. In short, beekeeping is so cool because it can work almost anywhere.
Bees also provide wax, which has almost unlimited uses.
Both honey and wax are valued for their medicinal use in traditional cultures. Bees also probvide a valuable ecological service through their role as a pollinator. Ways and Means of Apiculture Beekeeping has gained much attention as a means of raising the productivity of farm systems in the developing world. This is because the technology of beekeeping is typically within the means of even the smallest farm system. Beekeeping requires little capital input and low maintence, so it does not compete with other aspects of the farm system for these precious resources.