Diversifying employment and income through beekeeping enterprise

This study has been conducted on 200 Apis mellifera beekeepers located in six districts of Himachal Pradesh, where beekeeping is a poplar vocation among Chaudharies, Rajputs, Brahmins and scheduled castes/scheduled tribes communities. Sixty-five per cent of the beekeepers have been found to follow migratory than sedentary beekeeping. On an average, a bee colony has given Rs 475 and Rs 1,148 net returns under stationary and migratory conditions, respectively. The unit cost of honey production has been found higher (Rs 43.56/kg) on staionary than migratory (Rs 33.43/kg) farms. The study has observed that Beekeepr → Processor/Packer → Wholesaler → Retailer → Consumer is the most partronized marketing channel of exotic bee honey in the study area. The marketing costs have been found as 22 per cent, whereas the margins are as high as 51 per cent, thus lowering the prodcuer's share to 27 per cent in consumer's rupee of Rs 140/kg. The policy implications of the study have suggested that honey must be packed in well-sealed air-tight clean wide-mouth glass bottles for retail marketing. Efforts should be made to reduce the marketing margins so that producer's share in consumer's rupee is raised to a reasonable level.

In another part of the impact study carried out with indigenous honeybees in the Apple Valley of Kullu district, it has been found that after training, the apple growers could use honey bees for pollination and secured more than one-fourth increase in the total production. In economic terms, the project activities have made a significant impact on per household production of honey, contributing significantly towards enhancing their employment and income levels. The increasing competition from migratory bees (Apis mellifera) has posed an imminent threat to the survivability and sustainability of indigenous honeybees (Apis cerana) in the higher hills of Kullu district.