Bee Smart: Improving yields for cashew growers in Ghana with smart pollination management

蜜蜂是重要的传粉者，对农业和更广泛的环境都是如此。非洲蜜蜂对腰果等经济作物至关重要，为非洲的小农提供收入。蜜蜂智能项目将测试一种创新的新商业模式，以提高加纳男性和女性小农的产量和环境管理。具体地说，该项目将为小农户腰果农民试行低成本管理授粉服务，以提高产量，从而增加利润，并提高对生态系统服务价值的认识，促进环境保护。对于许多非洲国家来说，拟议的战略是新颖的，因为授粉服务尚未像在世界许多其他地区那样成为一种商业服务，授粉管理也没有被纳入小农的价值链。因此，该项目的成功实施在加纳创造了一个新的市场，使小农受益，并加强了英国和加纳之间的合作和能力建设。

Honeybees are vital pollinators, both to the agricultural industry and the wider environment. African honeybees are essential for cash crop, such as cashew, production to provide income to smallholder farmers in Africa. The BEE SMART project will test an innovative new commercial model to improve yields and environmental management for smallholder male and female farmers in Ghana. Specifically, the project will pilot low-cost managed pollination services for smallholder cashew farmers to improve yields, thus increasing profits as well as raising awareness of the value of ecosystem services and promoting environmental protection. The proposed strategy is novel for many African countries where pollination services have not yet become a commercial offering, as they have in many other parts of the world, and pollination management has not been integrated into the value chain for smallholders. As such, successful implementation of the project creates a new market in Ghana, benefits smallholder farmers and strengthens collaboration and capacity-building between UK and Ghana.