KENDRAPARA: Beekeeping and marketing of honey in the district has taken a severe hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 1,000 farmers of Kendrapara depend on Apiculture for their livelihood.
Rajnikanta Das, a bee farmer of Silipur village, has been involved in Apiculture since 2008 and installed 15 honey bee boxes on his land.
He collected around 30 kg honey last month but is now struggling to supply it to Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and other areas of the State due to transport restrictions. "I used to earn around Rs 1 lakh per annum by rearing bees and selling honey. Now, the pandemic has put me in trouble," Das said.
Another bee farmer, Hemant Kumar Behera of Balisahi village said the earnings of honeybee farmers and traders have been hit due to lockdown in several parts of the State. "As markets remain shut, the farmers and traders have nowhere to go," he said.
Hemant used to work in Reliance’s IT segment in Mumbai and quit his job in 2017 to start Apiculture in his village. Usually by this time of the year, traders start buying honey from farmers. However, due to the lockdown, finding a buyer and and transporting honey has emerged as a major cause of concern for the farmers.
Narayan Sahoo of Iswarpur village said it is high time the Government allowed businessmen and traders to collect honey from the doorsteps of beekeepers in the district. Every year, traders purchase honey from the farmers from May to July, which is the harvesting season of the honey. A honey bee farmer collects honey from the boxes five to eight times in a year.
As the demand has gone down, the price of honey in the local market too has taken a hit. The price of the sweet liquid, known for its numerous health benefits, has come down to Rs 250-300 per kg from Rs 600 per kg.
Apiculture has transformed the lives of several farmers and brought around a qualitative change in their lives. Bee farming is a viable option for farmers in the district where the climatic conditions are suitable for it.
Retired professor of OUAT Dr Chittaranjan Satpathy said OUAT has trained around 16,000 farmers of the State on Apiculture. "Farmers of the State rear Indian Honey Bee (Apis Cerana Indica). It is a profitable business. But many farmers have suffered huge losses due to COVID-19. The Government has several schemes to help them and I hope they are benefited by them," he said.