Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SAMS (SAMS - International Partnership on Innovation in Smart Apiculture Management Services (Apiculture = Beekeeping))

Teaser

Honeybees are playing a key role in the preservation of the ecosystem, they are important pollinators. Their pollination value makes the honeybee the third important animal for food production. At the same time, the number of bees is globally decreasing, e.g. pesticides...

Summary

Honeybees are playing a key role in the preservation of the ecosystem, they are important pollinators. Their pollination value makes the honeybee the third important animal for food production. At the same time, the number of bees is globally decreasing, e.g. pesticides, deforestation, climate change and hive management are possible threats for the honeybees. For reaching the SDG N°2 Zero Hunger rising the awareness including the promotion and improvement of beekeeping and further research on honeybees is crucial – the high potentials to foster sustainable development in different sectors, especially of the partner countries Ethiopia and Indonesia, are often used inefficient.
SAMS–Smart Apiculture Management Systems supports also the SDGs N°8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, N°15 Life on Land, N°17 Partnership for the Goals. It has been set up to enhance sustainable agriculture between EU and developing countries, and international cooperation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
The overall objective of SAMS is to develop appropriate ICT solutions for active monitoring and open source remote sensing of bee colonies. Gained information will be evaluated and converted into recommendations as support for small-hold beekeepers to simplify the management of their bee colonies taking into account bee health and bee productivity as well as increased quality of bee products. Furthermore, the gained information from the three continents should enable research partners to draw conclusions on the so called Colony Collapse Disorder. The eight project partners from Austria, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia and Latvia strengthen through their collaboration the international cooperation of the EU with developing countries in ICT, and strive to ensure to address the beekeepers’ needs and requirements in the target countries by the User Centered Design approach.
SAMS encompasses to increase the production and quality of bee products, to create jobs along the whole value chain of bee related products and trigger investments, to support local beekeeping capacity measures and the increase of local beekeeper rates, and to implement SAMS business cooperation as well as to establish international and interregional knowledge and technology exchange through networks to ensure long-term impact.

Work performed

The following results have been achieved during the first 18 project months:
Advisory Board (AB): The Ethiopian AB and the Indonesian AB with local activities, e.g. regularly meetings, have been established. The establishment of the EU AB is in progress.

UCD Research: A UCD strategy meeting in Witzenhausen/Germany followed by UCD journeys to Indonesia and Ethiopia took place. Interviews with bee-keepers in both countries have been made to assess and identify user needs and requirements. Out of the analysed interviews personas have been created and first As-Is scenarios have been visualized. A survey among scientists to identify their data needs is currently running until end of July. The UCD workshop taking place in Indonesia (July/19) has been prepared.

Manual on Beehive Construction and Operation: Local experiences about the types of modern beehive used in all the target regions are the basis for the manual. Beehive characteristics of each target country were considered, e.g. the way bees build their combs, distance between two fully grown combs, comb thickness, the species and size of the bees affecting the comb spacing, cell size and hive volume.

Implementation of SAMS Prototypes: 10 lo-fi prototypes have been designed and tested in Witzenhausen/Germany. After improving and adapting the prototypes, five hi-fi prototypes have been implemented in Ethiopia and Indonesia in March/April 2019. Data about acoustical frequency, weight of the hive, brood hive temperature as well as environmental temperature and humidity is streaming to the Data Warehouse.

Data Warehouse: The Data Warehouse (DW) is as a universal system that is able to operate with different data inputs and has flexible data processing algorithms. Within SAMS the DW is implemented as a cloud based data storage and processing unit with capabilities to combine different data sources, e.g. existing systems and available on-apiary generated data.

Capacity Building: A capacity building strategy covering the topics Hive Construction (WP3), Implementation and Application (WP4) and Bee-Management and Bee-Health (WP5) has been started to develop since February 2019. The strategy is agile and regularly updated by involved partners. First CB activities covering modern beehive construction, IT Adaption and prototyping and bee-management and bee-health have been conducted.

Catalogue indicators regarding specific threats: 10 rules for beekeeping have been identified to improve bee-management and -health. The document is under review and not yet published.

Data management base: The situation of honeybees and beekeeping in Ethiopia and Indonesia was contextualized in a scientific literature study, complemented by expert opinions from the two countries. The collected information (with references) and identified knowledge gaps were made publicly within SAMSwiki. SAMSwiki is open source and has been established to give information about bee-management and -health: https://wiki.sams-project.eu/index.php/Main_Page

Dissemination: Direct outreach has been initiated via the website www.sams-project.eu as well as Twitter @SAMS_EU_H2020. Additional people have been reached indirectly through project partners’ own dissemination activities, e.g. articles, papers, videos, press releases, attending national and international conferences and connecting SAMS to other (H2020) projects, e.g. Apimondia, hiveopolis. A showcase with the SAMS hardware has been built and is used at events.

Final results

With the full implementation of the SAMS project, six major impacts are expected which support small-hold beekeepers in managing bee health and bee productivity, establish businesses along the value chain, raise the general awareness regarding bees issue and beekeeping especially in Indonesia, Ethiopia and get more support from government for beekeeping activities and ecosystem.
At the end of the project, the requirements of in total 200 beekeepers and cooperatives and 20 infrastructure providers in Ethiopia and Indonesia have been addressed. Additionally in Ethiopia, Indonesia and on international level including EU, 45 bee related experts, 25 facilitators, 30 agripreneurs, 50 further SAMS data beneficiaries and 70 market stakeholders have been addressed. Regarding the technic, 120 Hive Monitoring Systems have been implemented and the Decision Support System have been adapted, demonstrated and validated. Moreover, two cooperation on marketing, two partnerships on ICT and two on bee management and consulting have been established. International and interregional knowledge and technology have been transferred to stakeholders and 20 business transferability studies in the regions Sub-Saharan Africa and ASEAN and one in EU have been made. For capacity building 220 beekeepers have been trained on modern beehive operation and implementation, in application and implementation of the Hive monitoring system as well as of bee management actions. 40 % of the trained beekeepers will be female. In summary 50 business plans and 25 businesses have been established in Ethiopia, Indonesia and EU – 40 % of the participants in business will be female.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.sams-project.eu.