Beekeeping in Latin America

Beekeeping has proven to be a powerful strategy to improve income and food security in coffee-farming communities.

Through our work, we have found that apiculture can help coffee-growing families diversify their livelihoods, earn income to fight food insecurity, and ease their dependency on one crop.

Food 4 Farmers currently works with three cooperatives on their beekeeping program, including CESMACH in Mexico, and ACODIHUE and Maya Ixil in Guatemala. In addition to our work with coffee-farming cooperatives, we have also supported research that shows the connection between bee pollination and improved productivity and quality in coffee.

We have created numerous tools to support Latin American coffee cooperatives and other farmer organizations interested in beekeeping for their members. The training tools below are resources for prospective beekeepers and include technical information, connections to expertise and resources, and real-time support to help coffee farmers get started in commercial beekeeping.

You can learn more by clicking on the following links to beekeeping tutorials or the beekeeping manual, both of which provide an overview of the basic components of beekeeping, and are available to all. Special thanks to Sustainable Harvest and Optic Nerve Productions for their generosity in providing video content for our site.