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SAMS - International Partnership on Innovation in Smart Apiculture Management Services (Apiculture = Beekeeping)

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SAMS (SAMS - International Partnership on Innovation in Smart Apiculture Management Services (Apiculture = Beekeeping))

Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2020-12-31

Honeybees play a key role in the preservation of the ecosystem as 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, due to different threats e.g. pesticides, deforestation, climate change and hive management. Awareness creation including the promotion and improvement of the apiculture sector and further research on honeybees is crucial to unlock the available potential of the sector.
Therefore the overall objective of SAMS was to develop appropriate ICT solutions for open-source remote monitoring of bee colonies. Gained data from the devel-oped ICT beehive monitoring system, stored in the Data Warehouse, were evaluated and converted into recommendations as support for small-hold bee-keepers to simplify the management of their bee colonies considering bee health and bee productivity as well as increased quality of bee products. The recommendations are available in the SAMSwiki and the Decision Support System. Furthermore, the collected data and gained information from the dif-ferent regions enable researchers to draw conclusions on different trends and threats. The eight project partners from Austria, Ethiopia, Germany, Indone-sia and Latvia ensured to address the beekeeper needs and requirements in the target countries by applying the User Centered Design approach and ensure through established partnerships on SAMS Business Development, Bee Colony Data and Knowledge Exchange and Apiculture Technologies and Services the sustainable use of gathered information and results.
SAMS increased the production and quality of bee products, developed beekeeping businesses, created jobs along the whole value chain of bee related products and technology, triggered investments, supported local beekeeping capacity measures and the increase of local beekeeper rates, raised the awareness through events, publications and conferences, and implemented SAMS business cooperation as well as international and interregional knowledge and technology exchange through partnership networks to ensure long-term impact
Advisory Board: Three Advisory Board were established (ID,ET,EU)

UCD Research and Business Development: Requirement assessment with 2802 stakeholders followed UCD workshops with users and experts in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Moreover, market surveys were conducted and 54 businesses models were developed. Based on the research results, SAMS ICT solutions (hardware, software and Api-management) were developed.

Manual on Beehive Construction and Operation: Based on local experiences a manual was developed. Beehive characteristics of each target country were considered.

Implementation of SAMS beehive monitoring system prototypes: 121 SAMS hive monitoring systems were installed ( 50 in ID, 46 in ET, 25 in EU - Romania, Latvia and Germany)

Data Warehouse: The Data Warehouse (DW) can be considered as a universal system which is able to operate with different data inputs and have 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 like existing systems and available on-apiary generated data. DW is publicly available and accessible online: https://sams.science.itf.llu.lv/

Decision Support System (DSS): The Decision Support System (DSS) shall supports beekeepers in automatically identify different bee colony states and informs the beekeeper if some activities are necessary. The user interface (UI) prototype of the DSS SAMS data display for beekeepers (for mobile devices) was developed in Figma software and evaluated in usability tests per target country, it is available in Amharic, Bahasa Indonesia and English. The DSS with analysing models was implemented into the SAMS DW for demonstration purposes, as well.

Capacity Building: 1077 new and existing beekeepers were trained on Hive Construction, SAMS system implementation and application as well as Bee-Management and Bee-Healthin t in Austria, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Latvia.

Catalogue indicators regarding specific threats: 10 rules for beekeeping as well as target country specific problems related to beekeeping were identified to improve bee management and bee health. The 10 rules were evaluated, visualized and are available in Amharic, Bahasa Indonesia and English on the knowledge and data management base – the SAMSwiki.

Data management base: Within the Api-Management, the situation of honeybees and beekeeping in Ethiopia and Indonesia was contextualized and made publicly within SAMSwiki. SAMSwiki is open source and was established to give information about bee-management and bee-health: https://wiki.sams-project.eu/index.php/Main_Page. SAMS results are also stored on SAMSwiki

Partnerships: Three International partnerships on business development (PS1), data management and utilization (PS2), and technology and services (PS3) were established to sustain, refine and disseminate the SAMS results. In total, 42 partners joined the partnerships during SAMS project time: PS1 =16 partners from Indonesia, Ethiopia and Germany; PS2 = 13 partners from Austria, Australia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Latvia and USA; PS3 =13 partners from Latvia, Romania, Germany, Indonesia, and Ethiopia.

Dissemination: via www.sams-project.eu & Twitter @SAMS_EU_H2020 (Direct outreach: 249.131; indirect: 7.412.437)

Exploitation of SAMS results: Uptake of Business Models, SAMS Partnerships, further deployment of SAMS Data Warehouse and SAMSwiki, Establishment of DSS, reuse of SAMS data
With the full implementation of the SAMS project, six major impacts were expected and fulfilled 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 In-donesia and Ethiopia, and get more support from government for beekeeping activities and ecosystem.
The requirements of in total 1197 beekeepers and cooperatives and 129 infrastructure providers in Ethiopia and Indonesia were addressed. Additionally, in Ethiopia, Indonesia and on international level including EU, 147 bee related experts, 135 facilitators, 222 agripreneurs, 295 further SAMS data beneficiaries and 677 market stakeholders were addressed. Regarding the technic, 121 Hive Monitoring Systems were implemented, and the Decision Support System was developed, adapted, demonstrated and validated. Moreover, three bee related partnerships and cooperation were established: business development with 16 partners (PS1), data management and utilization with 13 partners (PS2), and technology and services with 13 partners (PS3). International and in-terregional knowledge and technology was transferred to stakeholders and business transferability studies were made considering 20 low and middle in-come countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, ASEAN and one EU. For capacity building 264 beekeepers were trained on modern beehive operation and implemen-tation, 360 in application and implementation of the Hive monitoring system as well as 453 of bee management actions. 43 % of the trained beekeepers were female. In summary 54 business plans and 23 businesses were established in Ethiopia, Indonesia and EU – 42,8 % of the participants in business were female
Photo 1 Beehives in Ethiopia @UNIKAS, Sascha Fiedler
SAMS implementation Ethiopia
SAMS Hive system installation
Photo 3 Beehives in Ethiopia with SAMS Prototypes @UNIKAS, Sascha Fiedler
Photo 2 SAMS beehive with solar panel in Ethiopia @UNIKAS, Sascha Fiedler
Photo 6 Apis cerana in Indonesia, Ciwidey, @UNILV, Vitalijs Komasilovs
Photo 4 Beehive in Indonesia, Ciwidey @UNILV, Vitalijs Komasilovs
SAMS logo for all joint activities within the project
Logos of involved partners in the SAMS project
Evolution of DSS interface design
System Implementation ID in Banjaranyar
Photo 5 Beehive in Indonesia with implemented SAMS Prototyp, Ciwidey @UNILV, Vitalijs Komasilovs