सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Manthali. Commercial beekeeping is flourishing in the district. The number of beekeepers is increasing in the local levels here. Commercial beekeeping has been carried out in local levels including Manthali and Ramechhap Municipality, Sunapati Rural Municipality.
Farmers here are attracted to beekeeping as it provides high income with low investment. Beekeeping is a favorite of many because it can be done even in dry places.
Farmers say that it is easy to earn income from selling honey, especially since Serena bees usually produce honey in two to three months.
Krishna Bahadur Tamang, a local of Sukajor, Ramechhap Municipality-7, who returned from the city for employment for a long time, has taken up beekeeping with the determination to do something in the village.
He says that he is satisfied with it because beekeeping finally seemed easy while searching for opportunities. Currently, honey is being sold for Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per kilogram.
A single hive produces up to three kilograms of honey in a season. Tamang says that he extracts up to four bags of honey in a year. Chandra Bahadur Manandhar of Manthali Municipality-1 has expanded his beekeeping to 20 hives in two to three years.
He has now sold more than two hundred kilograms of honey. He said that although he had no knowledge about beekeeping at first, he started with a short-term training and is now earning a good income.
He said, ‘Bee honey can be extracted quickly, especially when the mustard is in bloom. The grazing area of bees is flower and mustard fields.’
Beekeepers sell not only honey but also hives with bees. Farmers say that a hive with Serena bees can be sold for up to 10,000 per head.
Sadavahar Multipurpose Cooperative Society has also started beekeeping in Manthali. Lal Bahadur Manandhar, the owner of Sunapati Beekeeping Farm and Khaniyapani, said that he sells honey to villagers for 1,200 to 1,500 per kilogram from the beekeeping he started after a short training.
He has been producing 100 to 150 kilograms of honey in a season from two breeds of bees, Serena and Merifera. 18 people from Rupakot in Khaniyapani have also taken up commercial beekeeping. The Rupakot Beekeeping Farmers Group has 53 hives in one place.
Five hundred hives have been kept in Khaniyapani alone. The Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernization Project has also been providing support in the form of grants for beekeeping since the past.
Binisha Shrestha, Information Officer of the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Modernization Project, informed that the said support is planned to be provided in the current fiscal year as well.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्