In keeping with the strategic focus of Under The Mango Tree, on working in agriculture and forest related issues which have the maximum impact on the poor, The Hive is its first endeavor.

 

Civilizations have largely ignored the importance of bees to their economies, as well as their crucial importance in feeding populations. Honey bees play a critical role in agriculture. The most important role honey bees play is actually not honey production, but pollination. Most plants are dependent on bees for their reproduction through pollination. According to National Geographic it is estimated that through pollination, bees are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food consumed globally. 87 of the world's 115 most important crops require pollination to develop fruits, nuts and seeds. These crops account for about US$1 trillion of the approximately US$3 trillion in annual sales of agricultural produce worldwide.[1]

 

Beekeeping is therefore the only form of agriculture with an overwhelmingly positive impact on the environment.  Side by side, it enables people derive economic benefit from forests, floral resources in a non destructive way as honeybees also produce honey and beeswax which are valued at $285 million in US annually.[2] By effecting pollination it makes a significant contribution to other forms of agriculture.[3]

 

One of the troubling signs adding to the impending agricultural crisis across the globe, is the increasingly large disappearance of bees. According to scientists during the last 50 years, the domesticated honey bee population has declined by 50 percent due mainly to diseases spread by mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides. Although farmers globally are beginning to refrain from pesticide applications while their crops are blooming, decades of pesticide use has also taken its toll on honeybees. In this age of environmental concern about stability of the world's food supplies and the consequences of chemicals in our diet, farmers are increasingly faced with the difficult choice of using pesticides to protect their bees, or losing their crops and going out of business.

 

Honeybee shortages are still not yet impacting commercial producers of crops, but across the globe research has shown that community farmers are struggling to get bees for pollination. In north America for instance, farmers are beginning to notice a shortage of honey bees for their pollination needs, and are being forced to import bees to shore up the dwindling bee population.

 

Any strategy to protect honeybees must go hand-in-hand with the recognition of their importance economically, as well as from the ability to feed the world's population. At risk is every plant crop that depends on pollination for reproduction: one in three mouthfuls of the food people eat. The importance of bees is best summed up by Albert Einstein: "If bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

 

“Bees for Poverty Reduction,” is a successful working model implemented across the world that aims to induce small and marginal farmers and landless labourers to start beekeeping with an aim to generate livelihoods.  UTMT aims to build on this model by enhancing this model with a strategy that addresses enhancing existing bee stocks as well develop methods to protect the honey bee.

Context of Working with Bees

Mystery of the Disappearing Bees 

One of the troubling signs of an impending agricultural crisis the world over is the increasingly large disappearance of bees. US beekeepers lost 35% of their hives this winter after losing 30% the previous winter. In Britain, the British Beekeepers Association has warned that honeybees could disappear entirely from the island by 2018, along with £165 million worth of apples, pears, canola and other crops they pollinate. Similar losses have been reported from China, Brazil, Canada and across Europe[4]. Various theories abound on the reason for their disappearance ranging from the ill effects of large scale commercial agriculture, use of pesticides to a combination of viruses. But there is consensus that this will have disastrous effects on agricultural production and productivity the world over. 

Bees and Agricultural Productivity

Bees play an important role in increasing agricultural productivity due to their role as natural pollinators. Increase in yields in some crops under Indian conditions is given below:[5]

 

Crops	% Increase in Yield
Apple- various varieties	180 to 6950
Pear	240 to 6014
Cherries	56 to 1000
Strawberry	17.4 to 91.9
Litchi	4538 to 10246
Orange	47 to 900
Citrus	7 to 33.3
Guava	70 to 140
Mustard	128.1 to 157.8
Rapeseed	12.8 to 139.3
Sunflower	21 to 3400
Niger	60.7 to 173
Berseem (Seed)	24.3 to 33150
Buckwheat	62.5
Egyptian cotton	16 to 24
Coffee Beans	16.7 to 39.8

 

It has been estimated that the overall benefit of beekeeping is over 14 times the cost of honey and beeswax.

Bee Keeping, an income earner

Bee keeping provides farmers with a remunerative income. It requires little investment, minimal requirements of land and is not labour intensive. It is particularly suited as an income-generating activity for women, young people or the landless. It has been proven to increase a farmer’s income by 50-60 per cent under favourable conditions. As a Punjab farmer states, "I started bee keeping five years ago with ten boxes. Today I have 150 boxes. If you compare honey production and crop production, three boxes are equivalent to one-acre production of crop.[6]

 

“Mr. Shashi Kumar of Suraheri village, Gaya district, Bihar started beekeeping by taking a Rs. 10,000 loan from a local cooperative bank. He set up 10 bee boxes to rear Apis mellifera bees. Today he has 600 beeboxes and earns approximately Rs. 5,00,000/- as net profit per year. About 20 persons are presently employed in his farm.” (The Hindu, May 8, 2008) Beekeeping is one of the main economic activities of the Muzaffarpur region comprising the districts of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, East Champaran, and Samastipur in Bihar. More than a thousand households in this area are directly associated with beekeeping.  There are about 856 full time beekeepers spread across 200 villages producing approximately 1,930MTs of honey. About 50,000 bee colonies are maintained by them providing employment opportunities to around 2,100 people in one of the poorest regions of India.   Incomes in this region range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 3 lakhs per annum depending upon the number of bee colonies maintained by the beekeeper.

 The National Bee Board estimates that 10,000 colonies of Apis Mellifera are capable of providing full time employment to 1630 persons. Thus bee keeping has tremendous potential to create employment in rural India.

 

Under The Mango Tree will seek to make this remunerative for primary producers by:

• providing market access;
• increasing incomes of beekeepers by procuring honey directly from beekeepers; and
• strengthening their capacities through training and capacity building support, providing cost-effective technological inputs and facilitating access to innovations undertaken in the sector.

Additionally, there exists a growing global market for beeswax with increased consumer awareness for natural cosmetics and other products that use beeswax as a raw ingredient. In India, the potential for sale of beeswax is largely untapped as most producers are unaware of this demand and how to cater to it.

 

Over the last one year, as an experiment,  UTMT identified and partnered with various producer groups across the country and brought to the market various varieties of single flora honey such as litchi, mustard, cashew, til and bajra (to name a few) besides organic certified honey in order to create an alternate niche market for the Indian beekeeper. Beekeepers had earlier their honey to middlemen who in turn resold it to India’s major honey producers who blended the original flora sources to create the “normal standardized version” that are available on the market shelf.

 

Role of UTMT

 

The role that UTMT can play is best illustrated in the words of one of its partner organizations, Ekta Parishad in MP. Madhya Pradesh is one of India’s poorer states. Endowed with abundant natural resources it supports the highest proportion of tribals in the country who are dependent on collection and sale of forest products such as herbs and honey. However the incomes that they earn are very low as they are lowest in the supply chain. Ekta Parishad has been working with these groups and is partnering with UTMT to gain access to markets and fair trade prices. Tribals today earn Rs. 40/- per kg of honey & Rs. 105/- per kg of bees wax. However, with proper training and capacity building on honey collection and processing, grading & packing etcthey can earn upto Rs. 70/- and Rs. 120/- respectively.

 

Fair trade and organic certified honey fetches a premium in the markets. However the tribals are unable to get the benefits of this due to lack of knowledge. There are other issues involved like irregular supply of honey, its quality, use of sustainable methods of honey collection. UTMT Trust will address some of these issues through its capacity building initiatives.

Profile of current UTMT Partners

 

Based on the profile of the producers UTMT currently deals with, three categories are broadly distinguishable.

 

• Large producer companies, beekeeper cooperatives;
• Middle level federations of beekeepers or co-op societies; and
• Individual bee keepers who operate on their own or function as aggregators to supply honey.

 Each of these categories face different issues. While some require guidance on technical issues, others require capacity building on certification and quality procedures so that their honey can command better prices. At the other end of the spectrum are new groups that require basic information on training, beekeeping or credit linkages.

 

As illustrated in the Concept Paper, UTMT Trust envisages performing a number of roles, providing technical inputs, building capacities to produce higher end products in the value chain, provide linkages to credit, continuous hand holding support.