Beekeeping innovation for sustaining rural livelihoods. A success story

Abstract

Over the last six decades, international development assistance agencies have tried to introduce innovations in developing countries to stimulate development and improve the quality of life of the poor. The results have been mixed. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of a project introducing modern beekeeping practices to increase household incomes among small farmers in Vietnam. The Project exceeded its targets in terms of the number of farmers who adopted the innovation and the number of households with increased incomes. The farmers also reported development benefits beyond those originally envisioned - improved health, happier family relationships, and greater respect. The successful diffusion is attributed to the readily observable, personally and collectively felt benefits of beekeeping, harmony with the social practice of sharing, and the efforts of the change agent to reduce the complexity of the innovation and to integrate local farmers' knowledge in the training and extension activities.