• India
  • Dec 01
  • Mathew Gregory

Migrant workers start to earn income under Honey Mission

Highlights

    • The self-sustainability measures initiated by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic have begun yielding results. The distressed migrant workers who were engaged with KVIC’s Honey Mission in Uttar Pradesh in the month of August, have reaped their first honey harvest and are awaiting a bumper yield in the months from December to March.

    • Five migrant workers in Western UP’s Muzaffarnagar district extracted 253 kg of honey from their 50 honey bee boxes that were distributed to them on August 25 this year. 

    • Raw honey sells at an average of Rs 200 per kg and at this rate it is estimated to fetch nearly Rs 50,000 to the migrant workers.  This means an average income of Rs 10,000 to each of these beneficiaries.

    • A total of 700 bee boxes were distributed to 70 migrant workers after training by KVIC in this region. Honey extraction from remaining bee boxes will continue in coming days.

    • The production of honey from these boxes will increase by at least 5 times in the months from December to March as the Eucalyptus and Mustard crop will be in full bloom during the season.

    • Each of these bee boxes will produce nearly 25 kg of honey during the peak season.

    • Further, the beekeepers will be able to migrate their boxes to nearby states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Eastern Uttar Pradesh where honey bees will find abundance of pollen and nectar and thus add to honey production.

    • Notably, responding to the Prime Minister’s call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, KVIC engaged hundreds of migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and engaged them with its flagship schemes like Honey Mission, Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana and Project DigniTEA among others. Apart from distributing them with essential tool kits; KVIC also provided technical training and supervision to the new beekeepers so as to support them.

KVIC's Honey Mission

Beekeeping is an important, sustainable, integral Forest, social forest and Agricultural supporting activity under the rural development programme in India, since it provides nutritional, economic, and ecological balance, while providing employment and income. 

It is a very low investment and skills Industry have the potential to offers direct employment to lakhs of people especially hill dwellers, tribal and unemployed youth and farmers.

Major objectives are:

    • Create an end-to-end implementation framework for beekeeping skill development, which provides employment opportunities and income generation to agriculturists, beekeepers rural & urban unemployed youth.

    • Enforce nationally acceptable standards of Good Beekeeping Practices (GPB) in the country.

    • Develop a network of quality master trainers in the field of beekeeping for imparting Good Beekeeping /Apicultural Practices.

    • Offer a passage for overseas market for hive products.

    • Enable pathways from novice beekeepers to viable commercial beekeeping by handholding to credit linkages.

    • Promote convergence and co-ordination between all the stakeholders of beekeeping in India

    • To bring qualitative & quantitative enhancement in honey & hive products for export and domestic market.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)

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