Panel for recognising honeybees as inputs to agriculture

A committee constituted with the objective to identify ways of promoting beekeeping in India has pitched for recognising honeybees as inputs to agriculture and considering landless beekeepers as farmers. The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) had set up a Beekeeping Development Committee under the chairmanship of Bibek Debroy.

The Beekeeping Development Committee (BDC) released its report Wednesday. The committee's report also made a case for recognition of apiculture as a subject for advanced research under the aegis of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.

It also stressed the need for the development of national and regional infrastructure for storage, processing and marketing of honey and other bee products. According to the committee's report, the government should promote plantation of bee-friendly flora at appropriate places and engage women self-help groups in managing such plantations.

BDC was constituted with the objective of identifying ways of advancing beekeeping in India, that can help in improving agricultural productivity, enhancing employment generation, augmenting nutritional security and sustaining biodiversity. As per the Food and Agricultural Organization database, in 2017-18, India ranked eighth in the world in terms of honey production at 64,900 tonnes, while China stood first with a production level of 5,51,000 tonne.

The report pointed out that 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. Based on the area under cultivation in India and bee forage crops, India has a potential of about 200 million bee colonies as against 3.4 million bee colonies today, it said.