Honeypot waiting to be exploited

If you have been to Chalan Beel, the country's largest marshland, which covers Sirajganj, Pabna and Natore, this winter, it is highly likely that you took notice of the vast mustard fields and the farmers working with dozens of wooden boxes there.

Or, if you visit the south-central districts of Faridpur, Shariatpur or Gopalganj now, you will come across similar boxes in the black cumin or coriander fields. 

The boxes are being used for honey cultivation.

The good news is farmers are increasingly going for bee farming now, gradually turning it a potential industry that can meet nutritional demand at home, enhance crop productivity, create employment and fetch foreign currencies.

"The annual production of honey in Bangladesh was 2,000 tonnes in the 1990s, which now stands at over 5,000 tonnes," said Khondaker Aminuzzaman, project director of the Development of Beekeeping through Modern Technology Project of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).

But the production can shoot up to 2 lakh tonnes, he told The Daily Star at the Honey Fair-2016, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh's (KIB) in the capital.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu jointly inaugurated the three-day fair yesterday.

"BSCIC has been working to promote honey culture since the 1980s, but as the agriculture department looks after the fields and farmers, it will also work in a greater way to promote honey culture," said Anwar Faruque, acting secretary to the agriculture ministry.

He said the government wanted to turn honey culture into an industry.

"Much of the honey consumed in Bangladesh is imported. One reason is we have weaknesses in honey processing and packaging," Faruque said.

According to officials and farmers, traditionally honey was collected from forests and orchards until the 1970s in Bangladesh. Eventually, commercial farming began with the introduction of high yielding bee variety, Apis mellifera, in mid-eighties.

BSCIC's training programme for farmers helped expand the cultivation. Presently, some 6,000 farmers across the country are involved in honey culture.

They shift boxes from one place to another with the change of cropping seasons.

Abdus Satter Hiru, a bee farmer of Tangail for some two decades, said they put boxes in mustard fields in November to January, coriander and black cumin fields in February, Litchi orchards in March, the Sundarbans in April, sesame fields in May, and plum fields in September and October.

During June, July and August, bees are provided extra food like sugar when they do not have enough flowers in the field to collect nectar from, he said.

"So we move to the places where there are flowers."

Khondaker Aminuzzaman of BSCIC said honey culture had multiple impacts on the economy.

"Bees greatly contribute to the pollination of flowers, which can boost production of crops or fruits by 15 to 20 percent," he said.

Aminuzzaman said in 2014-15, Bangladesh exported 500 tonnes of honey to India. There are demands from the USA, Japan, European Union, and Middle East, but the problem in Bangladesh lacked high-tech processing plants, he added.

Some entrepreneurs are gradually investing, though, he added.

"If the agriculture ministry and BSCIC cooperate, we can surely inspire farmers and establish honey culture as an industry," the official said.

However, farmers said they were facing the problem of low prices.

Golam Faruk, owner of Bonoraj Mou Khamar in Narayanganj, said presently honey was priced from Tk 4,000 to Tk 5,000 per maunds (approximately 40kg), which was quite low.

This is because of syndicates who set a ceiling and refuse to buy honey above that price, he added.

"The government needs to intervene here. If farmers get good prices, they would expand farming," he said.

Faruk also said in recent times, untimely rain in winter washed away nectar from flowers.

The acting agriculture secretary, Anwar Faruque, said the ministry was planning how to promote honey culture, including providing incentives to farmers.