Nepal: Change beekeeping strategy for food security (Part 1)
Atul Chatterjee
August 10, 2008
The 15th SAARC meet. just concluded at Colombo, in which one of the themes was food security for the region with special reference to tackle shortages. The discussions also voiced the need to become a food surplus region without detailing a modus operandi.
In this article we superficially examine the role of honeybees in an agricultural/horticultural setting with brief reference to Nepal. The government encourages modern apiculture and it is quite an old practice even in the remote parts of the country.
A lot of the data is geared towards the amount of honey produced in the country, the shortage which is met through imports. The role of honeybees as a pollinator by which agricultural/horticultural yields are boosted are known, but insufficient importance is placed on this aspect.
After World War 1 (1919) in California, USA agriculturists realizing the importance of bees as a pollinator and hence crop productivity enhancer starting renting bee colonies from beekeepers. So much so that data for 2006 showed that a bee colony could be rented for anything between $75 to $130 during the flowering season.
The major bee types in Nepal are Apis Cerana, Apis Mellefera, and Apis Dorsata. Cerana is the indigenous form which it has been found hard to keep in boxes. (Apis Cerana Indica found in the state of Uttrakahand, India adjoining Nepal however is quite easily kept in boxes there.) It yields a low quantity of honey and has a small radius of operation.
Mellifera is an Italian bee which is kept in boxes, has a high yield of honey and has a larger radius of operation than Cerana.
Dorsata is a wild bee which makes its combs from high trees, it has a high radius of operation.
The presence of honeybees can raise yields without a concomitant increase in inputs of water or fertilizer.
Not every farmer may want to keep bees for whatever reasons nor may well to do farmers be willing to rent boxes as in the USA. So this is an activity that can receive a government subsidy and target it to marginal farmers or landless.
Since this is an activity that is bring benefit to all farms in a region the government (or aid body) can create a central unit which has the expertise in 1. creating queens and 2. identifying diseases.
Then even with a low level of expertise on the part of beekeepers enterprises can move along. The death rate of colonies will obviously be higher in such a scenario, however standby Queens may alleviate the process. Over a few seasons or years the expertise of beekeepers will increase.
There are some simple measures that used to be taken by the writer while keeping a colony. 1. Sweeping the floor of bee boxes every night. 2. Dousing the inside of a bee box with water boiled with neem (margosa) every week, simultaneously smoking the hive with eucalyptus leaves. 3. While making sugar syrup mixing a small quantity of turmeric, not in every lot but once in five lots. Mixing small quantities of ginger juice during winters. (Beekeepers can experiment with local foods whose medicinal values are known, but quantities should be kept very low.)
The other point is that farmers in an area have to tell traditional honey harvesters gatherers not to collect honey from Dorsata hives till the flowering season is over. (The hive grows to the largest by the end of the season, but there is competition between honey harvesters.) This is obviously a hard task.
At present there is no known research ( to the writer at least) to create queens from Dorsata, just allowing Dorsata colonies to flourish would boost agricultural production !
Large farmers can be told to invest in bee boxes maintained by others in the area. Sounds hard but an overall awareness about the importance of bees as a pollinator has to be built up.
Literacy projects should include this element in their teaching. Bee keeping is not just mixed farming for honey and the other products of the colony. It is an environment friendly way of fertilizing fields !!
Just as Nepal has a successful program in gas from dung in which it has been helped by SNV, it needs to create a successful program in beekeeping also with a little help from its friends and more push from the government.
In this article we superficially examine the role of honeybees in an agricultural/horticultural setting with brief reference to Nepal. The government encourages modern apiculture and it is quite an old practice even in the remote parts of the country.
A lot of the data is geared towards the amount of honey produced in the country, the shortage which is met through imports. The role of honeybees as a pollinator by which agricultural/horticultural yields are boosted are known, but insufficient importance is placed on this aspect.
After World War 1 (1919) in California, USA agriculturists realizing the importance of bees as a pollinator and hence crop productivity enhancer starting renting bee colonies from beekeepers. So much so that data for 2006 showed that a bee colony could be rented for anything between $75 to $130 during the flowering season.
The major bee types in Nepal are Apis Cerana, Apis Mellefera, and Apis Dorsata. Cerana is the indigenous form which it has been found hard to keep in boxes. (Apis Cerana Indica found in the state of Uttrakahand, India adjoining Nepal however is quite easily kept in boxes there.) It yields a low quantity of honey and has a small radius of operation.
Mellifera is an Italian bee which is kept in boxes, has a high yield of honey and has a larger radius of operation than Cerana.
Dorsata is a wild bee which makes its combs from high trees, it has a high radius of operation.
The presence of honeybees can raise yields without a concomitant increase in inputs of water or fertilizer.
Not every farmer may want to keep bees for whatever reasons nor may well to do farmers be willing to rent boxes as in the USA. So this is an activity that can receive a government subsidy and target it to marginal farmers or landless.
Since this is an activity that is bring benefit to all farms in a region the government (or aid body) can create a central unit which has the expertise in 1. creating queens and 2. identifying diseases.
Then even with a low level of expertise on the part of beekeepers enterprises can move along. The death rate of colonies will obviously be higher in such a scenario, however standby Queens may alleviate the process. Over a few seasons or years the expertise of beekeepers will increase.
There are some simple measures that used to be taken by the writer while keeping a colony. 1. Sweeping the floor of bee boxes every night. 2. Dousing the inside of a bee box with water boiled with neem (margosa) every week, simultaneously smoking the hive with eucalyptus leaves. 3. While making sugar syrup mixing a small quantity of turmeric, not in every lot but once in five lots. Mixing small quantities of ginger juice during winters. (Beekeepers can experiment with local foods whose medicinal values are known, but quantities should be kept very low.)
The other point is that farmers in an area have to tell traditional honey harvesters gatherers not to collect honey from Dorsata hives till the flowering season is over. (The hive grows to the largest by the end of the season, but there is competition between honey harvesters.) This is obviously a hard task.
At present there is no known research ( to the writer at least) to create queens from Dorsata, just allowing Dorsata colonies to flourish would boost agricultural production !
Large farmers can be told to invest in bee boxes maintained by others in the area. Sounds hard but an overall awareness about the importance of bees as a pollinator has to be built up.
Literacy projects should include this element in their teaching. Bee keeping is not just mixed farming for honey and the other products of the colony. It is an environment friendly way of fertilizing fields !!
Just as Nepal has a successful program in gas from dung in which it has been helped by SNV, it needs to create a successful program in beekeeping also with a little help from its friends and more push from the government.
Print
Email
