How? Apart from fishing, the fishermen are also engaged in beekeeping for honey production to supplement their meagre benefits from their fishing business.

In fact, the fishermen have an association to run the affairs of their beekeeping business.
Nkhata Bay Honey Producers Cooperative (NHPC) was formed in 2000 as a Small Beekeepers Development and Research Association (SBDRA) to promote beekeeping in the district.

The association was formed to improve livelihoods of fishermen in the district who were struggling to make ends meet due to low fish catches as well as to reduce the pressure exerted by the ever increasing population of fishermen on Lake Malawi.

“Fish catches in the lake have been dropping therefore, we want to, taking advantage of other available natural resources to diversify and beekeeping came to our mind,” said NHPC Administrative Officer Lenson Simumba.

He disclosed that their decision to turn to beekeeping instead of just relying on fishing received an overwhelming response from the community. “In fact, many people in the communities have been expressing their interest to join our cooperative,” said Simumba.

Overwhelming membership

He further explained that his association facilitated the establishment of a network of 120 clubs with a membership of 10 beekeeping farmers per club in four Traditional Authorities (T/As) Timbiri, Mankhambira, Kabunduli and Mkumbira.

According to Simumba his cooperative temporarily suspended registration of new members to maintain a manageable membership.

One of the reasons why the cooperative has been attracting membership is that the group’s members are entitled to purchase of bee suits at a lower price than normal. Another benefit of being the cooperative’s member is that they are trained in modern beekeeping practices.

The training has so far assisted members improve honey processing skills such as extracting a high quality product that attract a good price on the market.

“In fact we are proud that while other groups add preservatives to their honey we do not pasteurize our honey because our aim is to give our customers the real taste of honey,” said Simumba adding that pure honey looks gold.

Over 40 years ago fishermen would not turn to beekeeping in Malawi but cling to their trade. Malawians were even then proud eaters of fish caught from their water bodies and rivers including Lake Malawi (Africa’s third largest ), Lake Chilwa, Lake Chiuta, Lake Malombe, Lake Kazuni, Shire River, Bua River just mentioning a few.

According to the Surveys Department for instance, in 1979 Malawi (then with a population of 5, 547,460 people) had a fish yield of over 22, 000 metric tones from Lake Malawi ’s shallow productive South-Eastern arm alone.

However, in recent years fishermen cast their nets only to catch few fish or nothing because fish catches including of Malawi’s delicacy, the Chambo have been on the decline.

Professor Leonard Kamwanja from Chancellor College of the University of Malawi said although fish has for years been a major source of protein (70 percent) for Malawians several researches reveal that people were eating less fish per year than they used to be due to fish scarcity.

“The per capita fish consumption has declined from 15 Kg per person per annum in the late 1970s to less than 7 Kg per person per annum in recent years,” said Kamwanja.

Environmental degradation

He said fish catches have dropped in Malawi’s water bodies because of among other things, acts of environmental degradation practiced by Malawians themselves. Matthews Chirambo of Department of Curriculum and Teaching Studies at Chancellor College concurred with Kamwanja.

He therefore said there was an urgent need to put measures in place if Malawi’s water bodies are to contain fish resources because they were under threat and face extinction.

Chirambo cited over-fishing, and fishermen’s use of destructive fishing gears especially in the main fish breeding zones in the water bodies as main activities threatening fish in Malawi’s water bodies.

“Despite having one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world, Malawi is experiencing low fish catches due to over-fishing,” he said adding, “We have lakes and rivers but we are no longer exporting fish but importing which is a sad development.”

According to Chirambo in 1970 for example, fish production was about 70, 000 metric tones per year and the figure dropped to 50, 000 in 1996 and, specifically, in 1985 Malawi produced 8,000 tones of the country’s delicacy Chambo fish.

He disclosed that in recent years, fish production has declined up to just as little as 1,000 metric tones per year.

President Bingu wa Mutharika admitted that his government is aware of the great value fish has played in Malawi’s nutrition and the economy since time immemorial.

“Fish catches have been depleted in Lake Malawi. But since the introduction of the Presidential Initiative on Aquaculture fish farming is now a business. A lot of fish ponds have been constructed in the country. Chambo is even available up country,” said Mutharika.

Mutharika was however, quick to say that Lake Malawi has to be routinely given a fishing break to allow fish to breed if it is to continue expressing pride of stocking more fish species (between 400 and 600) than any water body worldwide.