A CIRENCESTER woman is creating a buzz as she takes part in a challenge to help Tanzanian farmers create new beehives.

Emma Dennis has already set off for East Africa for a once in a lifetime experience, dubbed the Beehive Challenge.

She arrived in the country earlier this week to build beehives with local Tanzanian farmers in aid of the charity Farm Africa.

The 27-year-old agronomist, who works for Agrii, is also teaming up with UK farmers and fellow agricultural sector professionals as well as Tanzanian farmers and carpenters, to build as many modern bee hives as they can in three days.

All the hives will be given to two Tanzanian beekeeping groups when they are complete.

Before the trip Emma said she was really excited to work side by side with Tanzanian farmers.

"My dad and brother are pretty competent carpenters so I will need to pick a few tips up from them before I travel," she said. "The nearest I’ve come to building anything before is putting together flat pack furniture."

She and other UK travellers are also helping to raise £50,000 for the project, to allow Tanzanian farmers to produce large amounts of good-quality honey. The traditional beehives used by farmers only produce small quantities of poor honey.

Emma is no stranger to East Africa, having previously travelled to the area while studying international rural development. She became inspired to join the Bee Team after hearing about the work of charity Farm Africa.