Lilongwe-based youthful entrepreneur has urged people in the country to embrace bee farming as business saying it is a tool for agricultural promotion and a weapon of eradicating high unemployment levels.
Roselyn Kasunda is the founder of Peculiar Honeybee Products and Services located in Mitundu.
The company specializes in production and honey packaging, construction and installation of beehives, harvesting of maize and offering of beekeeping trainings and consultation.
Speaking with ProjectM, Kasunda explained that her company is a social enterprise which fight against climate change, women involvement in business poverty reduction through job creation.
“To alleviate poverty we have managed to train more than 3,000 people on bee keeping in our community. We have given 84 beehives to 18 groups as business startup and through bee training exercise jobs have been created. We also provide a market for honey and bee products”, she said.
Robert Kathemba is one of the people that was trained and he told ProjectM how bee keeping has transformed his livelihood.
“I struggled to make ends meet, I am fully established now and I keep livestock that I purchased from bee farming profits. My life has greatly improved and I am now able to provide for my family”, Kathemba said.
Kasunda explained that bees are an important aspect of agricultural production and thus the need to embrace bee farming.
“We cannot talk about agriculture without the presence of bees because when bees visit plants they help to pollinate plants. The process of pollination is very important because it improves crops quality and quantity”, she said.
Asked on why she ventured into entrepreneurship and not chasing for white collar jobs, Kasunda explained that her passion for agribusiness and job creation pushed her to establish her own company.
“I took a risk into farming and it’s something I don’t regret. I chose to focus on bee keeping because it’s a type of business that doesn’t require a lot of capital and easy to manage. Although I face critics and being looked upon, with the right perception I am able to bring results”, she said.
With her business Kasunda is able to support her parents and siblings.
She hopes to grow her company so that she can establish multiple bee keeping companies and be able to export 40,000KG of honey per year.
Kasunda is a graduate from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, in recognition for her work she won a funding from World University of Canada, she has also travelled to Germany, Belgium and South Africa for study tours.
