Bee The Change is promoting diversification of rural livelihood in villages of Maharashtra by creating awareness amongst farmers about the benefits of bee keeping and providing them with all kinds of support, including training By Sudipta Dev
Bee The Change is a social development initiative that is aimed towards rural/ social development by increasing means of rural incomes and diversifying the livelihoods of farmers. Founded two years back by Shrikant Gajbhiye, an IIM Kozhikode alumnus, Bee The Change team visits rural areas in Maharashtra and trains farmers in bee keeping, and also gives them bee boxes. Currently, in Maharashtra the network is in Khopoli, Sindhudurg and Vidarbha. “We wanted to do something which has a social impact, a product that is scalable, not overpriced and can be available to the masses. Those were the ground rules. We then thought that bee keeping is an excellent media to achieve those objectives,” says Gajbhiye.
Currently, Bee The Change network comprises of 70 to 100 farmers and tribals. Gajbhiye looks after sales and development of the network. “I want to have a network of 1000 farmers in two years and 10,000 farmers in five years. We are open to replicating the model in Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh,” he states.
Increase in productivity
Bee keeping leads to additional income for farmers. They also benefit through sale of honey and wax. If a farmer uses bee boxes in his farm and if he is doing cross pollination of vegetables, his productivity increases manifolds. “We have farmers who have witnessed increase in productivity as much as 200 to 300 per cent. I have a farmer who used to grow bitter gourd worth Rs 30,000 – 40,000 in a year, now after starting bee keeping in the same land he grows bitter gourd worth Rs 1.5 lakh,” states Gajbhiye, adding that there are certain crops which have immense output like capsicum, lemon, brinjal, tomato.
Further, if the farmer is doing bee keeping and farming together he is not allowed to spray any pesticide because if he does then the honey bees would die and there would be no increase in the output. Consequently, the output of the farm is organic. “If you see the entire supply chain, from the tribal or the farmer to the end consumer, everybody is benefiting,” asserts Gajbhiye.
Beekeeping is also an excellent option for women farmers, many of whom have small land holdings of one-two acres so they cannot leverage economies of scale. “Bee keeping goes well in such scenario, along with vegetable farming that they do in small landholdings,” mentions Gajbhiye.
Bee The Change also works with tribals, who do not actually do bee box bee keeping – they roam around in the jungles and hunt for honey from the existing honeycombs. They are provided specially designed jump suits. “They used to earlier extract honey in a very crude way, now we have experts to train them. As a result they extract honey in such a way that neither the bees are killed nor the honeycombs are destroyed. Only a particular section of the honeycomb is removed where the honey is maximum. So the honeycomb is there and after three months the same amount of honey can be collected from a particular comb,” informs Gajbhiye.
There are several challenges of course. First is changing the mindset of the farmers. Gajbhiye points out that when farmers are asked to buy a honey bee box they don’t do so because it is an investment of Rs 5000 – Rs 6000 for them, and the benefits are not immediate, but long -term. “I have to pay for the bee boxes and provide them free of cost to the farmers. After they maintain the colony for three-four months, they are able to see the benefits. There is also poor support from the government,” he rues. The honey varieties marketed by the company are gathered from different sources, and are not artificially flavoured. Few of the variants of honey are also sourced from north Indian states which have established cooperatives for this purpose. Leychee honey is sourced from Bihar, then there is Nilgiri honey, Himalayan honey, and Wildforest (from Maharashtra) – each has different tastes and medicinal properties. There is also Jamun honey which has anti diabetic properties. Gajbhiye believes there is immense potential for honey in the India market, including the hospitality sector, e.g. in the breakfast menu. Bakers also use the product extensively.