Thanks to the editor of the GP, readers are aware of the new position which your columnist now occupies in the Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi. As the Mission Director of the National Horticulture Mission, the mandate is wide, varied and myriad. The best part of the Mission is that it deals with all colours of the rainbow and more. Thus from saffron in Jammu & Kashmir to coconuts in Kerala, the producers of primary commodities have their unique issues which are coming to the fore, especially when global price trends are impacting domestic markets, and certification and quality standards literally make a world of difference.
This week’s column will look not just at honey, beeswax, venom and royal jelly but at the ecological and economic aspects of bee keeping in the country. Though honeybees are known primarily for their honey, the role which nature has envisaged for them is that of pollinating the hundreds of thousands of flowering plants to assure the setting of seed and fruit. In Europe and North America, the ‘pollination’ function of bees is assessed independently, there is an entire ‘market’ for bee colonies , and commercial beekeepers prefer to hire out the ‘bee colonies’ for pollination service, rather than keep them for their honey. This aspect has not yet been explored in any meaningful way in our country, though informal arrangements now exist among horticulturists and bee keepers, especially in the leeched and mango growing regions of the country. However now the National Bee Board and the National horticulture Mission are putting their act together to increase the number of bee colonies, not just for honey, but for the pollination services as well.
India has over 1.5 million bee colonies, with an estimated production of about 55K tonnes, including production from the wild (about fifty percent). However, even though Vedic literature and Ayurvedic treatises wax eloquent about the medicinal properties of honey, the per capita consumption is only 8.4 grams as against the world average of 200 grams per capita. (The highest per capita consumption comes from Germany (1.8 kg). There are several government agencies which are involved with honey production, processing, marketing and technical support. These include the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the Khadi & Village Industries Board (KVIB) Bee keepers’ co-operatives, Agricultural universities and the ICAR research project. However the important policy shift came about at the turn of the century when the Agriculture sector realized that honeybees were to be treasured, preserved and propagated primarily for their role in sustainable agriculture. Their role was placed next only to water, seeds and nutrients. It was in this context that the National bee board was established in 2000, in a public private partnership mode, including the farmers/bee keepers, processors and other stakeholders. The main objective of the Board is the overall development of scientific bee keeping in India by popularizing state-of –art technologies relating to nucleus stock production, capacity building and training of bee breeders and bee keepers, processing and quality control of bee products etc and to increase the productivity of crops through pollination and increasing the honey production for enhancing the incomes of the bee keepers/farmers.
Last but not the least is the issue of establishing and maintaining standards, and ensuring that what is sold as honey in the market is actually a ‘produce from bees’ and not some invert sugar syrup with glitzy marketing. Readers may be appalled to learn that some of the more popular brands of honey, including those sold in chain stores, pharmacies and CSD canteens are not ‘honey’ as we would like to believe. If the fine print is read closely, the approvals are not from AGMARK, (the agency which certifies agricultural products) but PFA (now FSSO) which only regulates food safety. Thus many popular brands of honey are not unsafe for human consumption – but they do not have any of the medicinal propensities which they are supposed to have. However as India has not been able to establish a National of the ‘state-of –the –art’ lab for quality testing of honey as per international standards, it is difficult to fight the issue legally. However this does show that the CSR statements of some of these leading names are quite hollow.
Closely linked to this is the recent (June 10, 2010) order of the European Union banning the import of honey from India because of their Residue Monitoring Plan (RMP)? Tests have shown the presence of heavy metals (lead and copper) and other contaminants (antibiotics) etal in honey sent from India. While one does not have to accept the logic of the European Union on its face value, and this could well be an effective Non tariff barrier against Indian products, the issues have to be addressed. Thus technologies have to be place to retain the competitive edge which Indian producer traditionally had in the export market.
What then should be the overarching strategy for this sector? The first step should be to define ‘honey’ and ensure that all the inverted sugar syrups sold in the market under the name ‘honey’ should be stopped henceforth. This one step will push up the prices of honey, thereby giving genuine bee keepers an incentive to multiply production. Secondly, technical support services, including the provision of making available improved strains of queen bees for selected species , including import of bee semen, and equipping bee breeders for multiplication and distribution of honey bees, supply of honey bee colonies and hives at subsidized rates . The third would be to assist organisation of bee keepers (co-ops, KVIBs, MSMEs) with financial support to expand their production capacities, and support them in packaging, brand management and IPR related services. And finally the big push to exports for two reasons: better price realization and the preparation for export also improve the product quality for the domestic market. AgriMatters hopes that over the next few months, some of the ideas contained herein will see the light of the day, and help India regain its identity as a land of milk and honey!