Félix Meutchieye, associate professor in animal breeding and production systems at the faculty of agronomy and agricultural sciences at the University of Dschang in Cameroon, joins us in this edition of Farmer’s Inside Track to talk about stingless bees. Yes, you heard right, stingless bees.
Meutchieye has worn many hats throughout his life but the one thing he aims to do is continue the work within the agricultural sector by making a difference.
As the head of the animal science division at the University of Dschang, his aim is to focus on enhancing food systems. “My area of interest is about biodiversity and my ambition is to build different pathways of agriculture,” he explains.
Research around stingless bees
According to Meutchieye, bees are an integral part of our ecosystem. They are essential because pollination is becoming a problem for fruit trees and plants. There’s not much attention given to the African bees even though they are a great source for our ecosystem, he says.
“After 10 years of working on bees, African bees are known to be very aggressive and people are more or less not excited about them.”
His focus is to finalise the inventory on bees and go beyond trying to understand what can be gained besides pollination. “These last four years we have been able to identify new species that are not known and that can be found and integrated into the production systems.”
Pollinator destroyers
What should also be taken into consideration are the pesticides used within the agri systems, causing pollinators to be destroyed in the process, Meutchieye remarks.
“Pesticides that are being used in agri systems are destroying most of the pollinators and it is obvious when we speak to farmers that they are complaining because the yields are declining,” he says.
In this episode, Meutchieye also discusses:
- Food security in Africa; and
- Where stingless bees are found.
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