News
Monday, October 02, 2006
Steps to make Pakistan a land of honey
PESHAWAR: Haji Wahid, a 54 year-old-beekeeper, was leading a happy life earning a handsome amount to feed his family but two thirds of his bee colonies were destroyed in the October 8 earthquake last year.
A native of Bajaur Agency, Wahid is running honey business with the assistance of 50 members of his family at Tarnab, a hub of honey trade in the NWFP.
“I travel with the bees across the country to provide them with pollen and nectar,” said Wahid, who started his honey business in 1992. He said that he visited Punjab and Azad Kashmir in search of bee-flora plants and flowers at the end of the spring season. “The large scale cutting of calocacia (palosa), berry, shisham, sunflower, peaches and citrus fruits in the NWFP has affected beekeeping,” he added.
Another beekeeper, Hameed Khan, said hundreds of his bees were killed during the termite attack in Karak. He said his bees could have been saved had he got anti-termite medicines and injections at the early stages. The medicines useful for bee treatment were being imported from China, Australia and Germany, which were not only expensive but were often not available in remote areas of the province, Khan complained.
He said there was an ever-increasing demand for Pakistan’s berry and palosa honey in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, the UAE, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries besides Europe because of its fine quality. He urged the government to fix honey rates to help thousands of beekeepers in their business.
Raza Shah, president of Pak Beekeepers Association (PBA), said that 6,000 honey farms existed in the NWFP. He said the government should impose a ban on the cutting of berry and palosa trees to save millions of bees from starvation and ultimate extinction. He said beekeepers should be provided interest-free loans.
Haji Rafique Najeeb, a leading honey exporter in Tarnab said, “Demand for Pakistani honey is always on the rise in the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia.” He said an increase in average yield of honey per colony had increased from four kg to 21 kg while the total production in the country had increased from 250 tonnes to 2,500 tonnes for the last two decades. He said the increase in honey production had brought down the prices of honey in the local market. “I have been selling berry’s honey for Rs 180,000 a tonne in 2005 against Rs 160,000 in 2006,” Rafique said. He added local beekeepers needed to have technical know-how and training to improve the quality of honey and to increase their annual income.
He alleged that some officials of the Food Department demanded illegal gratification from the exporters and on refusal declared their products injurious to human health.
“The department’s inspectors take 20 samples from the honey market every month to examine its quality,” Dr Bilal, deputy district health officer (DDHO) of Peshawar, said. The samples are divided into three parts, all sealed. One is handed over to the owner, another to the Health Department official while the third is sent to the laboratory for test, he added. “We lodge an FIR against the owner once his product is declared injurious to health,” the official said.
“The population of the local bee apis florae (small bee) is gradually vanishing from the country because of consistent loss of flora plants, flowers and scrub forest,” Anisur Rehman, assistant entomologist of the Agriculture Research Institute (ARI), Tarnab, said. He said if urgent measures were not taken for the conservation and protection of flora plants, there was every possibility of loosing an average five to 10 kilogramme out of 1,000 kg honey.
China became the biggest honey producing country by giving attention to apis cerana bee while the Pakistan stood 20th.
In 1977-78, the official said, that Pakistan Agriculture Research Institute (PARI) had brought apis mellifera (western bee) to increase honey production but unfortunately they were not adjusted with the climate and proved to be non resistant to diseases.
“A gigantic project with the assistance of UNHCR was launched for Afghan refugees in 1981-82 at the ARI where a large number of apis mellifera were brought from Australia and Italy. They were distributed among the refugees and locals that played major role in the increase of honey production,” he added.
“There is a possibility of losing the wild bees in the future if proper attention was not given to its preservation and management of natural forest,” said Dr Mumtaz Malik, chief conservator of the NWFP Wildlife Department. The gradual cutting of olive, kicker and berry trees also contributed to the decline of wild bee population, he added.
Dr Malik said beekeeping could be developed as a non-wood-forest product for the locals living near the forests by raising their income level through preservation of wild bees population. Under the Palas Conservation Project in Kohistan, he said, the capacity building and training of the beekeepers was being focused.
“The government has included a ‘Honey is remedy for health’ in the Annual Development Programme of 2006-2007 to promote the beekeeping industry in FATA,” said Dr Syed Qasim Shah, assistant director of agriculture in FATA. It is a two-year project and would be completed with an estimated cost of Rs 950,000. A project for women called ‘Honey in kitchen’ is also in the pipeline. Nine projects worth Rs 22.175 million are underway in FATA with focus on capacity building, farmers’ education and raising nurseries of bee-flora plants in FATA.
“We will issue a card to beekeepers for their identity before law enforcing agencies to save their time while migrating from one agency to another or settled areas,” Dr Shah said. The department has planned to train 8,000 people, including 1,000 females, besides distributing 2,500 bee-boxes on cheap rates among the farmers of tribal areas by 2010 to bolster their income.
“The University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Peshawar, is working on a honey extracting machine which will be available in the market in June next,” Javed Iqbal Khattak, SMEDA manager said. The cost of an electric machine would be Rs 9,000 which is designed in such a away that could purify tonnes of honey in relatively far less time besides saving precious life of bees off springs that are killed in thousands during purification process of combs, he said. app
Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk