The training took place from the 09^th to 11^th April 2018 at the PROCEFFA platform Office in Biyem-Assi Maison Blanche (Yaoundé).

The PROCEFFA beekeeping project participates in the achievement of outcome 3, activity 3 of the VIA Don Bosco 2017-2021 Program: promotion of beekeeping in the Family Farm Schools/IFER. The project which is to integrate beekeeping in the curriculum of 07 Family Farm Schools in Cameroon, is a joint project between 02 Belgian NGO (Miel Maya Honing and VIA Don Bosco). The Family Farm Schools (FFS) and Institute of Rural Entrepreneurship (IFER) are agricultural vocational training schools aimed at providing Cameroonian rural and semi-urban youth with quality integral training that prepares them to integrate into their socio-professional milieu and contribute to sustainable local development.

The objective of the training is to train and build the capacity of 14 trainers of 07 Family Farm Schools/Institute of Rural Entrepreneurship (CEFFA+ Berem, IFER Nkambe, FFS Mbiame, IFER Mokolo-Koza, IFER Bertoua, IFER Ngaoundéré, CFA Malen V) on the various modules on apiculture on the following specific functions:

• Integration of the beekeeping course into the FFS/IFER curriculum;
• Theoretical and practical training of learners in apiculture;
• Follow up of learners integrating beekeeping into their professional projects (until 2021);
• Research internship masters and set up strategic alliances with beekeepers or apicultural structures (with the support of the promoter organizations).

The training took place in two (02) phases:

Phase 1 was class work that treated the following main topics

• Inspecting the hives ;
• Beekeeping management ;
• Swarm prevention and control ;
• Colony division ;
• Pests and diseases ;
• Harvesting and packaging of honey ;
• How to extract quality honey ;
• Bee products.

Phase 2 was practical work with GIC APINK a beekeeping group at NKOMETOU on how to inspect a hive and identify other member or elements in the hive.

The training was participatory, full of experience sharing and full of lessons learnt as the all 14 trainers/monitors of the FFS/IFER were present during the training session.

Joseph DINGA KWELLA

in charge of Beekeeping