The Project Overview

We are a conservation and social impact-oriented start-up, situated at the border of Kibale Rain Forest National Park. Together with the local farmers, we strive to deliver an incredible, rich and delicious pure honey, outstanding coffee , green and red tea; the sale of which provide a means for us to:

• Improve local livelihoods

• Reduce human-wildlife conflict

• Conserve primary forest resources

Through beekeeping, we help local farmers;

• Protect their crops

• Increase their income

• Develop a globally demanded skill

Further, we want to help promote pollination and reduce pressure on the forest by providing an alternative source of income, ultimately conserving local biodiversity.

Where We’re Going

We’ve made huge leaps since that first few weeks of building the farm. We now have a dedicated area manager helping us look after our Enjojo Farmers, for whom we supply continual support, and a steady market for their seasonal honey harvests.

We have also branched out from honey into tea and coffee, which also help protect farms by acting as buffer crops against elephant raids.

We hold training courses in basic beekeeping, and to sensitise people who are interested in being close to bees and beekeeping, and we’ve had a good turn out so far. We’ve had a total of 5 trainings so far, most held on-site, and we have begun training our farmers to make green tea, to increase the value of the raw product by up to 1000%!

Our own apiary is steadily growing and our accommodation is improving too. We have solar power, rainwater collection and enough room to take many visitors, so get in touch if you want to come and check out the place!

For the future, we are looking to expand organically, as the project is already verging on being self-sufficient. This means that we can grow as a company, as a conservation project and as an eco-farm as opportunities arise; not as a necessity to please stakeholders.

For the project, we will be looking to reach new farmers when the funds allow. For now, we’re comfortably managing on a small scale, but will need more staff and gear to handle an expansion.

Upgrades in the pipeline for the headquarters include more rainwater storage, so we can have a dry season vegetable garden, upgraded solar power, so that we can make more smoothies, and a finished guest house and bathroom so that we can pamper our visitors.

We would also like to start training local farmers in crop rotation and composting techniques to reduce the need for potentially toxic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as water collection and other sustainable practices.

Nyangoma Margret

Enjojo Farms ‘Pioneer’

Margaret has also been with us since the start. She and her children have taken an attentive role in managing their apiary, and she is always ready to communicate with the HQ, even just to call and say hello. Margaret has a medium-sized farm, on which she grows food for her family.

What Margaret has to say:

Why did you join the project?

“I love bees: they give me honey, and I get money from selling it. Also, we take some of the honey and it relieves my kids’ cough, when they are suffering from it”.

What has changed since you joined?

“I love myself for keeping bees. Last harvest (our fist), I used the money that I got to pay my kids’ school fees”.

Are you satisfied with the project?

“Yes, but when all my hives are colonised I would like some more”.

Some more feedback from Margaret’s children:

“I’m happy because we get honey and I want to have more bees!”

Mukundane Rosette

Enjojo Farms Area Manager

Rosette is our Kyanyawara area manager and currently looks after the three farmers on this page. She has sixteen years of beekeeping experience and a home apiary with around 100 hives. She assures that farmers manage their hives properly and reports to us about their performance. People like Rosette are crucial to the success of our project and we are reliant on their hard work and communication.

What Rosette has to say:

How is the project going for you?

“I think the project is moving on well because the colonisation rate of the hives is really good”.

Are the farmers still interested?

“I think they are more than interested because they try to work very hard”.

What do you think of the location?

“It’s a nice place. Most people want to come and keep bees from here because the honey from here is very good”.

How do you see the project developing?

“I want it to grow and become big, and get processing rooms and equipment”.

How Did We Get Here?

Enjojo Farms began with an ideas session between a zoology student (Tom) and a local forest ranger at a field research station in 2017. After being told about the issues people face in the area, and studying the success of beehive fences in other East African countries, a plan was set to establish a similar project on the edge of Kibale rainforest.

With a person on the inside, and a helping hand from the Andy Wilson Bursary, the project looked set to go ahead. Funds were allocated, recruits were vetted, and we had started purchasing beehives and taking in numerous points of useful data in advance of the relocation to Uganda to set everything up.

Unfortunately, one of the earliest and most poignant lessons around working in this region came hard. The local co-founder of the project disappeared with a lot of the funding, along with that for another project, similarly conspired with another group of well-intentioned students. It turned out the paperwork had been faked and none of the progress we’d thought we’d made was actually real. Building up Enjojo Farms was not going to be an easy task.

However, by this point there was another member of the team. Someone who had more than proven themselves honest and extremely hard working. Our company secretary, Bibie, was the obvious choice to take the shares from our criminal co-founder, who was subsequently dismissed.

Another immediate challenge to the project plan was in the authorities’ heavy-handed approach to working with us. Demanding a high percentage of our revenue for anything gained on the forest edge, they quickly isolated themselves as local partners or allies. We were going to have to change our approach.

We recruited several farmers to join us in our project, all of whom live within 3km of the forest. We bought a maize field, and quickly set to work converting it into an off-the-grid headquarters and farm for us to live, train and feed on. The building you see below was built out of the very land itself.

What our Farmers Say

Honest feedback and a respectful dialogue with our farmers are very important for us. Throughout the development of our project we want to ensure that they feel comfortable to criticize and also participate in the improvement of our processes. Asking the right questions and understanding the farmers perspective can sometimes be hard. Nevertheless, we think that assessing local knowledge and opinions, in regularly scheduled feedback meetings, is crucial for the success of any (development) project.

At the beginning of the project, we lost a number of farmers due to a lack of trust, and ultimately a lack of communication. We’ve since made it a priority not just to tell our farmers they can talk to us, but to show them they can. We’ve learned that perceived hierarchy can be a very cumbersome hurdle, and are striving to bridge the gap between the farmers and the project managers to create a safe environment to give and receive constructive criticism.

Here’s what some of our farmers had to say about us:

Bagonza Andrew

Enjojo Farms ‘Pioneer‘

Andrew joined our project at the beginning in January 2019, and was the first farmer to have full colonisation of all of his hives. Subsequently, he received another ten hives on the land, and now hosts thirty colonies on his land. Andrew continues to gratify us with his commitment to the project while maintaining a large farm with a high diversity of other income streams such as timber, matooke, cattle and tea crops, which he sells locally.

What Andrew has to say:

Why did you join the project?

“I was already working with bees and I am hard-working, and very happy to join the project”.

What has changed since you joined?

“Through the training that you provided, I have managed to help my neighbours. Some people around here have the same business, mostly with traditional hives, and but are not trained; so I advise them”.

Do you think you will benefit?

“In the future I think I will benefit, and I am proud and happy to be part of the project”.

Nyakahuma Emmanuel

Enjojo Farms ‘Pioneer’

Emmanuel also started with us in January 2019, completing the training with our other five Pioneers. His honesty has come in very handy when communicating concerns and when we have needed to find out about troubles with a previous area manager. He has a small patch of land next to Margaret, where they are able to support each other’s apiaries.

What Ema has to say:

Why did you join the project?

“Because I see most people who have joined are now better off”.

How is the project moving on?

“It is moving on well, and I am waiting for the dry season, to get honey. It has rained a lot this season and we haven’t harvested yet”.

Do you think you will benefit in the future?

“If I thought I wasn’t going to benefit, I would have not joined. The fact that I joined means that I have hopes. I have it in my heart to keep working on beekeeping”.