Economics of Honey Production in Punjab

Beekeeping is an age aid practice in India. The climatic conditions and flora in Punjab are suitable for commercial beekeeping. Honey is most important food item of modern world and is used for manufacturing more than 300 items. The present study was carried out to estimate the cost and return structure of honey production for different size categories of apiaries in Punjab. The study was based on primary data collected from 60 beekeepers from the Punjab state; For the analysis of data, the selected respondents were divided into three categories, on the basis of numbers of bee colonies using cumulative cube root frequency method. The overall variable cost was worked out at Rs. 1365.19 per box, which was the highest for small beekeepers at Rs. 1474 per box. The overall fixed cost was Rs. 472.73 per box. The annual yield per hive was highest on large farms being 27.6 kg and lowest for small farms being 24.21 kg. The annual net returns per box from the sale of honey and its allied products were highest for large beekeepers at Rs.1712.95 followed by medium at Rs. 1063.39 and small beekeepers at Rs. 523.76. The overall B-C ratio was 1.50 indicating that beekeeping is a profitable enterprise. Large beekeepers were more efficient as compared to medium and small beekeepers in honey production. Similar results were obtained based on break even analysis. It was observed from the study that the large beekeepers were getting more returns in comparison to small and medium beekeepers. The functional analysis revealed that the total fixed cost, permanent labour and migration cost affected the gross returns positively.