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A study carried out in northern Kenya in 2007, found out that honey production is expanding in Kenya but, data on production trends, processing and marketing is fragmented.

Introduction of better technology hives can significantly improve the yields and quality of bee products. Local marketing systems should be strengthened through organisation between traders and beekeepers. To enhance the market competitiveness, honey requires improved processing and quality assurance.

The Kenya honey council was formed in 2003. The council provides a forum for stakeholders in the bee industry to promote, coordinate and safeguard their interests, facilitate growth, expansion and promote awareness of bee products and keeping.

There is need for comprehensive development in apiculture sector that embraces all the key stakeholders in the value chains so that the development of beekeeping becomes self running and perpetual.

For perpetual development to occur, it calls for sound policies so that finally beekeeping does not only pick up for a short run but the development becomes self running and perpetual.

For this to happen there is need for sound policies so that in time the impact is tangible in terms of increasing the number of beekeepers and the number of honey bee colonies, increase in quality honey production, better technologies in post harvest handling of honey and all the more increase in crop productivity through pollination services by bee services.

For instance in the Egerton University Travel Report- Honey Bee/ Mushroom Technological Packages May 25th- June 2nd 2013, while the team was on their way to Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) honey processing unit for an excursion, they met with marketers on the roadside selling unbranded honey and one farmer association selling branded honey.

The team (selected members of the Egerton University, Punjab Agricultural University and Ohio State University) conducted excursion at the Rokocho honey processing centre, where they discovered that the facility has the capacity to collect 100,000 tonnes of honey but is funding to purchase honey from farmers. The facility has seen an increase in honey production and this financial year may surpass its target of honey collection.

The facility sells its honey in selected supermarkets and has had problems with meeting the demand. The facility has had the challenge of convincing farmers to keep bees because beekeeping as an enterprise has been looked down upon in comparison to other livestock production systems.

Excursion conducted by the team at KVDA in Kabarnet town, which is a honey production equipment designing and fabricating workshop arm of the Kerio valley development authority.

The workshop fabricates among other equipments both longs troth and KTBH hives. They sell the equipment to farmers and give advisory services on beekeeping and general management practises.

The workshop also experiments on traditional log hive and the potential of introducing a queen excluder to enhance production.
The team also visited Kapkuikui farmers association in Baringo.

This is a group of farmers organised under the auspices of Kapkuikui livestock improvement initiative. This group sells branded honey (Lake Bogoria Acacia Honey). Through sourced funding, the group started to put up a honey processing facility which is yet to be completed.

In all the visits, the general assessment based on the interaction with key stakeholders in value chain including beekeepers, trainers, processors and packers, hive and equipment manufacturers and honey hawkers; it was found out that there are certain weaknesses and strengths in beekeeping development in Kenya.

The strengths of Honey Production in Kenya include;

• Great diversity and availability of bee flora
• Large honey product and honey production potential
• Beekeepers are receptive to the new technologies
• Availability of honey procurement, processing and marketing facilities by both the government and private entities
• Easy loan facilities from banks
• Existence of hive manufacturing organisation among many more

The Weaknesses of Honey Production in Kenya Include;

• Lack of research for technical back up
• Lack of specialised and experienced human resource
• Lack of enthusiasm among farmers in starting beekeeping and expansion
• Lack of desired level of forward backward linkages between technical experts and end users
• Lack of conviction power among trainers for dispelling bad practises
• Continued deterioration in existing bee stock
• Lack of knowledge about honey handling and maintenance of honey quality among others

There is need to understand our bees; their absconding and migration. Absconding is as a result of disturbance from man or pests. There has been an intervention in India where the absconding instinct is at its least. Breeding work has to be taken in Kenya because at the moment our bees are still wild.

There are two mainly types of mushrooms planted in the country namely ;the button and oyster. The button mushroom is grown exclusively by large scale farmers since its cultivation is highly sophisticated.

The oyster mushroom was introduced in Kenya in the year 2003 is a species planted mostly by small scale farmers because of its high yielding power, wide fruiting temperature range, superior flavour, high nutritional content, low capital investment and its ease of production.

There are mainly four commercial mushroom farms in the country namely; Agridutt limited, Rift Valley mushrooms, Devani and Kanchan mushrooms and Olive mushrooms.

There are also some small farms that produce mushrooms however; they usually sell their produce to hotels and restaurants around them. The large scale farms sell their produce to supermarkets countrywide.

The growth of the mushroom production sector is in the country is currently at its infant stage and the rate of growth is very slow. Consumption of mushrooms is also low due to the low popularisation.

Mushroom production is at 476 tonnes for the button mushrooms while Kenya has a potential of producing 100,000 tonnes of mushrooms per year. The mushrooms produced/ harvested by farmers are sold in supermarkets, hotels and groceries.

There is a huge demand market demand and hence a great potential for profitability. The production also requires limited land and specifically in Kenya where there is the problem of serious subdivision of land.

As far as mushroom production is concerned, the most important thing is quality spawn. Successful culture at Egerton University will only be possible if spawn is produced in house and the extra spawn is sold or provided to farmers for promotion and demonstration.

This has been done with success at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). There is need to use available technology that is workable at Egerton University or in Kenya at large where mushroom production is practised on small scale then, this will be put to outreach farmers.

There is also need for research that focuses on feedback from farmers making it a farmer oriented research. Most of the challenges that Kenya is facing in mushroom production, are not only unique to Kenya but, the challenges are everywhere where mushroom production or rather where mushroom culture is practise are carried.

The practice only needs good management to ensure high productivity of the mushrooms planted by the farmers both in small scale and large scale farming. There is plenty of substrate available for mushroom cultivation.

Kenya’s economy largely depends on agriculture; about 80% of the population depends on agriculture for livelihood. Despite the fact that almost half of the country’s population suffer from food insecurity, the potential for increased agricultural production remains unexploited.

The increase in population and the diminishing sizes of farms have resulted in a continued decline of soil fertility and associated land degradation, culminating in decreased land productivity and increased number of people living below the poverty line.

Diversification of agriculture to high value crops and transformation of smallholder agriculture from subsistence to commercial business enterprises offer good promising options for revitalization of agriculture and wealth creation among the rural poor.

Mushrooms are a high value crop with great potential for income generation and enterprise diversification and can be of great benefit to people alleviating poverty especially those living in the rural areas of the country.

Apart from Africa, the other parts of the world consume mushrooms widely. World production of edible mushrooms is estimated at 14 million tones and their cultivation is centuries old not only for food but has always been used for its medicinal nature/ contents.

In Kenya the cultivation of mushroom is still in its infancy stage and the growth rate has been very slow. Historically mushrooms were seen as a luxurious foodstuff reserved for the affluent and their production is a guarded preserve of a few large- scale farmers who could afford the capital and the equipment to cultivate the crop.

There was also little awareness on mushroom production and utilization, and the market prices were high and out of reach for most Kenyans. However all that has changed since now both the rich and the poor people have turned to mushroom cultivation for food security, income generation, nutrition and medicinal factor.

Status of mushroom production

There are two main types of mushrooms commercialised in Kenya (Agaricus bisporus and pleurotus species). The button mushroom is grown exclusively by large scale farmers since its cultivation is highly sophisticated.

The oyster mushroom which was introduced in 2003 is the species popular with small-scale farmers owing to its ease of product, high yields, wide fruiting temperature range, superior flavour, high nutritional content and low capital investment.

Commercial mushroom farms in Kenya include; Olive mushrooms, Rift valley mushrooms, Agridutt limited and Devani and Kanchan mushrooms.

There are also other small farms producing mushrooms but, the four farms mentioned above sell their produce in the supermarkets. Small scale farms usually sell their produce in the hotels and restaurants within the country.

Establishment of traditional commercial scale farms requires a huge initial capital investment, so smaller farmers are hard to grow mushrooms in a commercial scale.

The commercial farms technical expertise comes from personnel who have been trained abroad in countries where mushroom farming is popular.

To start a medium sized farm the grower requires capital for construction of mushrooms houses, purchase of the land, purchase of the machines used for compost preparation, installation of air conditioners, acquisition of spawn, educating staff and many other cost related to mushroom production.

These costs could be lower for a person who had the knowledge about mushroom cultivation because many of the required systems could be improvised to lower the initial investment.

Many farmers in Kenya are interested and willing to venture in the art of mushroom cultivation but, they lack the capital to cultivate the crop and cannot afford to hire trained personnel.

The greatest problem however, is the lack of availability of mushroom spawn. Kenya does not have a spawn manufacturing company therefore, making the interested farmers to be left with no choice but to either import the spawn or use spawn which generally is not up to the mark.

Dr. Muthamia from Egerton University emphasized that mushroom production compared to beekeeping, much has not been done about it at Egerton University and that a project that had been started in collaboration with Nanjing Agricultural University came to a halt due to reliance of spawn from Nanjing.

As far as mushroom production is concerned in Kenya, the most important thing is quality spawn. Successful culture at Egerton University will only be possible if spawn is produced in house and the extra spawn sold or made available to farmers for promotion and demonstration. This has been done with success at Punjab Agricultural University only that spawn is sold at nominal rates.