Lacking buzz

The reported move by the National Bee Board to set up a honeyfed (on the lines of the milkfeds and markfeds) for galvanising the marketing of honey deserves a cautious welcome. While smooth marketing is crucial for the growth of apiculture (as honeybee-keeping is called in scientific parlance), merely creating an institution like honeyfed may not suffice unless other problems of the sector are also addressed. The Bee Board and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) are already there to do the job. But there cannot be any dispute over the need for a better promotion of apiculture. In fact, honey bees are needed as much for crop pollination (a pre-requisite for good seed setting in cross-pollinated crops) as for the production of honey and other by-products""all of which have substantial commercial value.

Indeed, many countries have used bees chiefly to enhance crop yields. For that reason, it is often argued that the country's edible oil crunch might not have been as acute as it is at present had bee-keeping been tied to oilseeds cultivation. What is worse, this basic point has not sunk in even now. As a result, not many oilseeds growers have taken to bee-keeping. It is a different matter though that many enterprising bee-keepers, largely landless farmers, have been providing the services of bees as pollinators by shifting their bee colonies to areas around mustard, sunflower and cotton fields, largely in search of food for their bees. At present, with an annual production level of 50,000-55,000 tonnes, India is way behind countries such as China, Argentina and Mexico as a honey producer. The fact that the country manages to export about one-fourth of this output is only indicative of the demand this product commands in the global market. Of course, the domestic market for honey is also quite large in the pharmaceutical, ayurvedic and cosmetic industries, besides direct human consumption. And considering the growing popularity of honey-based health foods, including Chavanprash and its variants, this market is bound to keep growing.

It is, therefore, imperative to build an enabling atmosphere for the apiculture sector to bloom. Fortunately, the long-drawn-out controversy over which bee species to rear has finally been resolved and the vote has gone to the Italian species, Apis mellifera, which has displayed its superiority over the indigenous species Apis cerana indica. The bee-farmers too have shown their preference for the better honey-yielder and relatively docile Apis mellifera, which also happens to be the world's most widely reared honey bee species. What is needed now is a resolution of the other constraints of the sector, especially those concerning the post-collection processing and value-addition of honey and by-products like beewax, propolis (or bee glue) and royal jelly, the storehouse of vitamins and amino acids, which are much in demand as dietary supplement. Also wanting is the quality packaging, branding and product promotion through advertising. There are hardly any arrangements for dissemination of the much-needed market intelligence, including prices, for the bee-farmers. Even the basic facilities for pasteurisation are lacking. Unless such issues are suitable addressed, the true potential of this sector may remain only partially capitalised.