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Amiti Sen
New Delhi: What is sweet, easy to digest and can be used in a variety of food products? For Sarparveen Kaur, the answer is honey. It is Kaur's belief in the unlimited potential of honey that has helped her build up a business of honey products which has given business opportunity to thousands of farmers.
"There is a misconception that honey has only medicinal value and thus has limited use. The truth is that it can be used in any product which requires a sweet ingredient," says Kaur whose company manufactures a number of honey based products including jams, squashes and dry fruits mixed with honey.Kaur had been fascinated by the untapped potential of honey right from her student days. After studying the art of beekeeping from Punjab Agriculture University in 1976, Kaur went to Europe to gain more knowledge. "I visited France and Germany and learnt the latest techniques in bee-keeping there."After returning to India, Kaur engaged in R&D work to adapt what she had learnt abroad to the Indian conditions. Sheused the technology that she obtained from Europe to produce products from the beehive like pollen, propolis and royal jelly which was earlier not available in the country and had to be imported.
Soon, she set up her unit and started encouraging farmers in Punjab to take up beekeeping. "It was difficult to convince them in the beginning, but the facilities that I offered served as incentives and a few adventurous ones agreed."
Kaur says that her company is the only one in India that has specialised in beekeeping for rural development by providing employment and means of income to the marginal farmers. The company supplies the farmers with highly bred Italian bees, apiary equipment and trains them in beekeeping besides providing them with buy-back facilities. "The honey produced by the farmers is bought at pre-determined rates," says Kaur.
As Kaur's venture started to bear fruit, more and more farmers came forward to take up her offer. Observes Kaur: "Farmers are convinced only when they can see positiveresults." Encouraged by the way things were moving for her, Kaur approached the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Ltd. with a proposal to start a joint venture company manufacturing honey and honey-based products. The project, aimed at helping a large number of farmers to take up beekeeping, was approved by the Corporation. "M S Gill, who was the development commissioner of Punjab that time, approved the idea as it was the first project of its kind in the state." So, in 1992 Honey Bee Natural Products Ltd. came into existence with Kaur as the managing director. Since then, Kaur has been working to promote honey as a food item. She is slowly and surely creating a market for `speciality honey', i.e. honey from a single flower source. "Honey is a natural food and when it is derived from different flowers the taste and the properties are different. We have a variety of honey from flowers growing in different seasons," says Kaur.
January to March is the season for producing brassica honey. Eucalyptus honey isproduced between March and April. The following month is the season for litchi honey. Sunflower honey is produced between May and July and the cold months of November and December is ideal for the production of rapeseed honey. Honey Bee Natural Products, which had a turnover of Rs 1 crore in 1993 grew by leaps and bounds and the annual turnover in 1997 touched Rs 8 crore. The increase was partly because of growing awareness among people about the use of honey and partly because of export orders coming in from the US and Germany. Says Kaur, "Ours was the first company to export honey form India in December 1995. On an average, we export around 2,000 tonnes of honey annually."
However, things are not all sweet in the honey business. When the weather turns unfavourable, so does the fortune of the marginal farmers engaged in beekeeping. Says Kaur, "When flowers become scarce, the bees start dyeing due to lack of food." It is a big setback for the farmers as they suffer heavy losses. In the present year, cropfailure has affected honey production adversely. As against a turnover of Rs 8 crore in the last financial, Honey Bee will be able to scrap up a turnover of only Rs 4.5 crore in 1998, feels Kaur. Exports have also been affected. "We have received a large order but that is not enough. We need to have enough resources to meet the order."
Kaur believes that the government is not doing enough to support the business. Loans at easy interest rates should be given to the farmers to help them tide over the lean periods. Says Kaur, "Farmers who take up beekeeping are usually poor. It takes them a long time to recover from a bad season. Subsidised loans would help them to build their businesses again." Financial help from the government would also help to keep bees alive in adverse climatic conditions, feels Kaur.
In European countries farmers provide bees with other sources of food when there is a scarcity of natural food. But in India farmers cannot do so simply because they do not have enough resource. "Iftimely financial help is provided then bees can be saved." With nearly 4,000 farmers in the states of Punjab and Haryana producing honey for Kaur, she has come a long way. But she says that it is only the beginning of the journey. "Beekeeping in India has tremendous potential. There are only two million bee colonies in the country while there is a possibility of 180 million." Kaur now wants to start sourcing honey from farmers in HP, UP and Bihar. "The best part about beekeeping is that the process is simple, does not require land and can be taken up by just about anyone."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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