Bisan Al-Khawaja
27 years old, married, and an agricultural engineer specializing in animal production.
At first, she worked for short-term contracts as a supervisor in the livestock sector;
however, due to the lack of employment opportunities, she launched her small
agri-enterprise within the bee sub-group, calling it “B Queen.” Her family helped her
prepare the cells, harvest, pack, and market; this allowed her to expand the cells,
reaching 20 productive beehive cells. However, Bison’s small agri-enterprise is
facing difficulties with high raw materials prices and the need for unique packaging,
which isn’t continuously available in the market; besides, the lack of safe channels for
marketing and the competence of big traders who import low-priced types of honey,
which attracts consumers to state that the biggest challenge facing her small
agri-enterprise is climate change; the shifting in seasons and high temperatures
has negatively affected both the bee’s quality and the flowering rate, which
requires additional nutrition and costs to maintain the apiary.
The high temperature is also causing bees’ death; sometimes, Bisan tries to join the cells to maintain the
apiary. Besides, it is causing the spread of diseases, which is costly and challenging to secure antibiotics
and related treatments; sometimes, she uses therapeutic alternatives and mixtures that may be
ineffective. Bisan made use of the technical topics addressing ruminant breeding and dealing with bees
facing climate change within the capacity-sharing sessions facilitated by GUPAP
she had the chance to exchange and share her experience and was acknowledged to various
adaptation mechanisms of other UWAF members having similar agi-enterprises. Besides, she was
advised by the UWAF advisory team through their field visit assessment of her small
agri-enterprise to cover the beehive cells with shade feathers for protection from high
temperatures. GUPAP facilitated her having it; it helped her a lot to maintain the quality of their
beehive cells.
