AI-Driven, Climate-Smart Beekeeping works with 20 women beekeepers in Uzbekistan to improve bee health and productivity, making local agriculture more resilient to climate change, collating vital indicators on food security, bee health, and environmental conditions.
Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, AI-Driven Climate-Smart Beekeeping for Women is being implemented by the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in partnership with HiveTracks and the Uzbekistan Beekeeper’s Association. AI-driven beekeeping supports the sharing of region-specific best practices to increase honey production and improve bee and environmental health.
AID-CSB is made possible through a beekeeping app that is adopted to the local context through an inclusive, user-centric process with beekeepers and stakeholders. The app tracks and manages beekeeping tasks according to set goals such as increasing bee health or learning new beekeeping practices. The app then pools and processes local knowledge from regional beekeepers to deliver advice back to beekeepers, tailored to their individual hives, flora, and climate.
Adopted to the local context using a gender-responsive, user-centric and inclusive process, the app equips beekeepers with live community data. Aggregated on the climate-smart beekeeping platform, stakeholders are enabled to monitor bee health, beekeeper success, and beekeeper progress, improving visibility, traceability, access to markets, and beekeeper livelihoods.
AID-CSB Objectives
- Support digital literacy and use of the beekeeping companion app
- Improve beekeeping efficiency and hive management
- Diversify and improve community livelihoods through beekeeping
- Pool knowledge to build data and indices on bee, crop and environmental health
The World’s Smartest Beekeeping Companion
- Up Next - Calendar-based reminder to perform a yard visit
- Sun - Weather-based information on bee flight adequacy
- Alert - User-input-triggered alert on bee health
The app helps beekeepers know how and when to feed, treat and inspect their hives.
The frequency and types of inspections in combination with the climatic conditions create a unique, data-enabled profile of the honey.
Tools that improve beekeeper livelihoods
Declining Bee and Pollinator Health is a Threat to Biodiversity and Food Security
Bee and pollinator health are declining, posing a threat to biodiversity. At the same time, beekeepers lack access to training materials, and opaque value chains limit their ability to access markets and strengthen their livelihoods.
Community Data to Develop Community Expertise
Decentralized, real-time bee and environmental data from all beekeepers are aggregated and run through algorithms that are based on a decade of bee-related research and data science.
Grouping every user by their relevant peers based on environmental factors as well as personal settings, the app generates community intelligence that benefits every single beekeeper.
Stakeholder access to the bee data platform enables the application to new industries and areas.
Next-Stage Beneficiaries
- Growers & Farmers
- Importers & Exporters
- Sellers of Produce
- Governments & Agencies
“75% of commercially grown crops are pollinated by bees and other pollinators. Beekeeping creates genuine work while reducing food costs to people in areas through higher yields and improved quality of micronutrient rich food.”
Weather Data, Environmental Data, Bee Data
Weather, Record, Connect, Calendar, Visualize, Monetize, Reminders, Reward, Authenticate
Milestones
- First Prototype, User Testing, Start App Development, MVP Launch, Local App use, Impact Data Presentation
Contact
- HiveTracks, Project Partner
We empower beekeepers to improve pollination of micro-nutrient dense foods and produce honey, supporting livelihoods and conserving natural ecosystems, with local, data-enabled community intelligence.
AI-Driven Beekeeping – Future Feature Additions
After our initial pilot project, there are many opportunities for additional features to be added to the app:
- In-app agricultural extension services and bee health monitoring
- Digital veterinary advice and pest management
- Certification, registration, and adherence to practices
- Traceability and authenticity of honey, including the honey value chain
