Rwanda bees being wiped out by pesticides

The use of pesticides in East Africa, some sold by European companies despite its ban in the EU, kills bees in large numbers and threatens entire ecosystems, according to scientists.

Joseph Ruzigana, from the Muhanga district, in southern Rwanda, woke up one morning to find all the bees of his 20 newly built hives.

“The other beekeepers have also lost many bees because of these dangerous pesticides. It seems that we will not have honey this season,” he told AFP.

Ruzigana said many beekeepers, who had more than 100,000 in Rwanda according to the officials, abandoned.

“The few bees that remain are very weak and unproductive … I used to get up to 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of honey from a hive in a season of a month, my family was well taken care of, but everything that collapsed,” he said.

The modification of climatic conditions is part of the problem: the longer rains this season were not favorable to beekeeping.

But the main problem is pesticides, say residents and experts.

Bees pollinate crops, including coffee, tea, lawyers, mangoes, grains and tomatoes, which makes them key to an agricultural sector which represents 30% of GDP and 70% of employment in Rwanda.

It is the same thing throughout the region. Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya have all reported mortality rates by growing bees due to pesticides, according to the International Center for Physiology and Ecology of Insects in Nairobi.

Dangerous pesticides

Rwanda is a poor and coastal -free country that strives to feed its people through the improvement of corn and rice cultivation, and pesticides help control pests such as army verses.

But many pesticides affect navigation and reproduction of bees and have been linked to the collapse of the colonies, when the workers’ bees abandon a hive.

Rwanda cultivates large quantities of Pyrethrum, a flower that could be used to make a natural pesticide, but exports all its Pyrethre liquid.

Instead, Rwandan farmers use imported synthetic pesticides. A 2022 study of Turkey Ondokuz Mayis university revealed that 72% used a rocket, containing profenofos, which is very toxic to bees.

Jeanne Nyirandahimana, who is part of a female beekeeping cooperative, said that average profits have gone from around 250,000 Rwandan francs ($ 178) per season to around 30,000 ($ 21).

“These are pesticides like a rocket killing our bees, every day, we find many dead bees on the roofs and some die in hives,” she said.

A previous study by the University of Rwanda revealed that 22% of farmers around Lake Kivu used Malathion, also deadly for bees.

Although it was prohibited for use in the EU, Malathion is still exported by Denmark, France and Germany – 12.5 tonnes in 2023, according to the European Chemicals agency.

“Critical importance”

Jean Claude Izamuhaye, responsible for agricultural production in Rwanda Agricultural Board, said that the body was working on the problem.

“These are our natural pollinators, and it is of crucial importance that bees are saved,” he said, adding that the board of directors was planning to increase the use of “less harmful bio-pesticides.

The continuous sale of toxic pesticides by EU companies can also mean that they find themselves in the food that is sold to Europe.

A study published this month by Foodwatch, a plea group, revealed that more than half of the food imported into the EU of Rwanda contained traces of “very dangerous” pesticides which are prohibited in Europe.

EU countries have sold 81,615 tonnes of 41 pesticides prohibited to other countries for agricultural use in 2022, according to the Pesticide Action Network.

© 2025 AFP