2019 – Posted in: Press Information Bureau – Tags: apiculture

Beekeeping Development Committee report 2019

(Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council)

WHAT

The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister set up a Beekeeping Development Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor Bibek Debroy has released its report.

Rearing of honey bees or beekeeping is called Apiculture.

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMITTEE

To identify the ways of advancing beekeeping in India, that can help in improving agricultural productivity, enhancing employment generation, augmenting nutritional security and sustaining biodiversity.

BEEKEEPING DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Recognizing honeybees as inputs to agriculture and considering landless Beekeepers as farmers.
Plantation of bee-friendly flora at appropriate places and engaging women self-help groups in managing such plantations.
Institutionalizing the National Bee Board and rechristening it as the Honey and Pollinators Board of India under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. Such a body would engage in advancing beekeeping through multiple mechanisms such as setting up of new Integrated Bee Development Centres, strengthening the existing ones, creating a honey price stabilization fund and collection of data on important aspects of apiculture.
Recognition of apiculture as a subject for advanced research under the aegis of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.
Training and development of beekeepers by state governments.
Development of national and regional infrastructure for storage, processing, and marketing of honey and other bee products.
Simplifying procedures and specifying clear standards for ease of exporting honey and other bee products.

FINDINGS

The beekeeping can be an important contributor in achieving the 2022 target of doubling farmer incomes.
India ranked eighth in the world in terms of honey production (64.9 thousand tonnes)
China stood first in the world with a production level of (551 thousand tonnes)
Beekeeping cannot be restricted to honey and wax only, products such as pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom are also marketable and can greatly help Indian farmers.
India has the potential of about 200 million bee colonies as against 3.4 million bee colonies today.
Increasing bee colonies will increase the production of bee-related products and will also boost overall agricultural and horticultural productivity.

BEEKEEPING AND INDIA

The production of honey in India increased significantly towards the late 1990s. 70% of honey production comes from informal segments.
As major exporter of honey, India falls behind China, Argentina, Germany, Hungary, Mexico and Spain.
Five species of bees of commercial importance are found in India; Apis dorsata (Rock bee) (and a larger Himalayan subspecies, Apis dorsata laboriosa), Apis cerana indica (Indian hive bee), Apis florea (dwarf bee), Apis mellifera (European or Italian bee), and Tetragonula iridipennis (Dammer or stingless bee).

WAY AHEAD

India’s recent efforts to improve the state of beekeeping have helped increase the volume of honey exports from 29.6 to 51.5 thousand tonnes between 2014-15 and 2017-18 (as per data from the National Bee Board and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare).

Source: PIB

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