The Northern region Ethiopia has characteristics that limit agricultural production, with a climate that varies from semiarid to desertic. To cope with such conditions, the rural community has invested in farming small animals, and recently there has been great interest in beekeeping, which is the focus of a research project developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) in partnership with Mekelle University. The main goal of the research activities to increase honey production by 20% in the outskirts of Mekelle, capital of the province of Tigray, by establishing a comprehensive program of Apis mellifera breeding and management, with the involvement of 1500 beekeepers, in addition to Master's and PhD students. “It is impressive how beekeeping in the province of Tigray, in Ethiopia, makes a difference in the life of farmers. Rains are concentrated in four months of the year. In this period, several nectar-filled plants emerge, which are ideal for honey production, and thus generate important income, which allows for the livelihood of familes for the whole year in some cases”, observed the Embrapa Acre researcher Patricia Drumond, who was in the African continent to develop activities within the project “Community Based Honeybee Breeding will be Food Security among Agricultural Households”, in June. “Our expectation is to jointly develop with the researchers from Mekelle University the Apis mellifera Breeding Program, in which the most productive, less aggressive and more hygienical bees will be selected, as these are factors that influence in honey quality and product insertion in the international market”, Drumond reports. According to the project coordinator in Ethiopia, the Mekelle University professor Mohammed Tilahun, while beekeepers in the country recognize that bees are not all similar in terms of honey yield and drought tolerance, they have not had the chance to conduct species selection yet. “I hope that our project can establish a bee genetics knowledge base. Our goal with that is that individual colony productivity and total honey production increase in the country. Embrapa has advanced technologies and knowledge about bee genetics and honey quality, and we are sharing this knowledge and infrastructure through this project so that Ethiopia can use it”, he affirms. This year, five professionals from Mekelle University will be trained in Brazil, at Embrapa Mid-North (Teresina, PI), with support from the Federal University of Piauí. Moreover, the genetic characterization of the selected bee colonies will be conducted in Brazil until the equipment at Mekelle University is complete. “We are currently working on the identification of the best colonies regarding productivity and adaptation, based on the experience of agroecological beekeepers and training them through project activities. We have also been identifying potential beekeeping areas in the Tigray region to start the activity with new collaborators”, Tilahun states. International cooperation The Project “Community Based Honeybee Breeding for Food Security among Rural Households”, which started in 2017 and is due to end in 2019, is the second international cooperation project focused on honey production between Embrapa and Mekelle University. It is funded by M-BoSs, a program that has been designed to strengthen and deepen cooperation between African and Brazilian institutions through development-focused research projects, and which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID), the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA), and several other partners. The first Embrapa project developed in partnership with Mekelle University, between 2011 and 2013, analyzed the yields of the different Apis bee species and subspecies used by the beekeepers in the region of Mekelle, as well as the correlation between such production and the apicultural pasture in the area surrounding the apiaries. During the period, 14 beekeepers, a Master's degree student and an undergraduate student were trained as multiplying agents and supported other beekeepers in seven districts of the region. This project was carried out in the scope of the Agricultural Innovation MKTPlace, an international initiative that aims at benefiting smallholders in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Translation: Mariana Medeiros