Apiculture In Kashmir: Opportunities & Challenges

The Jammu and Kashmir has been endowed with many natural resources like lush green forests, perennial rivers and lakes, fertile soils, vast areas of land rich in vegetation cover. The land with good vegetation cover is best suited for the development of apiculture. APICULTURE is the rearing of honey bees commonly in hives for production of honey and other products of the hive like bee wax, propolis, royal jelly, etc is called an apiculture. A place where bees are kept is called apiary and a person dealing with the rearing of honey bees is called an apiarist. Apiculture is an old and agro based industry in kashmir. Beekeeping is a simple, easily accessible and affordable especially in rural areas. It utilizes the naturally available resources that are in bulk in the kashmir valley. There are many types of honeybees reared by beekeepers, they are Apis dorsata (Rock beee), Apis florae (little bee),Apis indica (Indian bee) Apis mellifera (European bee) Apis adamsoni (African bee). The first three types are common in india among which Apis dorsata gives much yield than other two types but Apis dorsata are rarely domesticated due to their nature. The other two are easily domesticated due to their docilness. The Apis mellifera and the Apis adamsoni give more yield and are also easily domesticated. Two types of beehives are widely used by apiarists in kashmir namely Mud/clay hive (traditional) and Langostroth hive (Modern hive). Modern hive is much better than traditional one from various reasons. It is safe from climatic conditions, provides enough space for bees, bee activities can be checked in it and is durable and easily movable. Now a days, apiarists are using Langstroth movable hives than traditional ones and they can move modern hives along with bees from one place to another easily keeping in view of blossoms, vegetation cover and weather conditions. The honey bees collect the nectar and pollen from the flowers of different plants and use it for making honey.Honey production and its quality and quantity are related to bee species specificity and the vegetational pattern around bee colonies.The color and flavor of honeys differ depending on the nectar source (the blossoms) visited by the honey bees . The color of accacia honey is light in colour due to nectar collected by bees from white colour flowers of accacia.
Bee keepers obtain honey two times in a year, one in the May June months and another November December months. the honey obtained in May June months are usually of nectar and pollens from the Acacia flowers. It is costly compared to the honey obtained in November December that are from the nectar and pollens from different kinds of vegetation flowers. The Acacia honey is characterized by having a very light color, almost transparent, flower-like aroma and sweet, delicate flavor. The accacia honey remains liquid longer and crystallizes much slower than traditional honey. This is likely due to its higher fructose conten. Apiculture provides gainful employment and income to the thousands of rural families. Beekeeing can provide the youth many employment opportunities in different fields in hive carpentry, production and sale of honeybee colonies, honey trading, renting of bees for pollination etc. A large chunk of educated youth in jammu and Kashmir are running from pillar to post for getting the government jobs but due stiff competitions for limited vacancies, it becomes very difficult for the government to provide all educated youth employments.it is better, if a portion of the youth gets attracted and interested to agro based beekeeping industry, it will have multiple benefits for the youth and families in particular and the society in general and will make the youth of Kashmir ’employment providers” instead ’employment seekers”. Their household income will increase and will contribute to the economy of the state as well. How to attract the youth towards the beekeeping industry, a number of measures are to be needed on war footing basis. The first and foremost is the awareness raising among the youth through seminars, symposiums, debates, discussions, councelling,etc. The youth should be educated about the importance of the apiculture industry and financial help and interest free loans to be provided to the youth by the government. The concerned department can arrange training programs for the youth about the new techniques, methodologies, scientific managements of bee keeping. However, for the past many years, the agro based beekeeping industry is not free from threats and challenges that has not only affected honey production but also quality as well. The potential threats to the apiculture facing for many years are climate change, global warming, increasing use of pesticides, weedicide, outbreak of viral and bacterial diseases that have declined honeybee population and rendered many areas without honey bees .Destruction of forests, clean cultivation (mono culture plantations), urbanization, have diminished bee vegetation and rendered many areas barren for bee keeping. The bee business is also neglected by the government and apiculture department as the bee business has not been brought in the livestock category yet and Beekeepers are not getting benefits of crop loan and crop insurance and this callous attitude of the government leads to huge losses of every year to beekeepers. To avoid harsh and cold winter conditions, the apiarists of the valley migrate to different places along with their honeybee colonies in search of flowers and for a suitable environment for the bees to thrive. They usually migrate in December to states like Rajisthan and Punjab and return back to the valley in march and April. Such a migration brings a sigh of relief to the valley beekeepers. To revive the old agro based apiculture industry again in the valley, the state government and apiculture department should come forward for the help and support to the youth in all forms whether financial, technical, awareness and education otherwise, the little surviving apiculture industry will become extinct with disastrous consequences to the agriculture, the ecosystem and the economy.
(The author is a teacher at Boys Higher Secondary School Beerwah. Views are his own)
[email protected]