Beekeeping Business in India flourished like never before

Beekeeping | World Bee Day is celebrated worldwide on May 20. Many youths in the country are doing good business by joining beekeeping. Today Kisan of India brings you the story of one such youth from Kashmir. 23 years old, Nazim has become a successful beekeeper and excellent honey producer.

While narrating the incident five years ago, he wished his words should be heard carefully. This is a matter of October 2017. Like other days, Nazim was studying that day in his house, which had a window facing the main road. Nazim was then in class XII. He desired to become a medical doctor, so he chose science subject. Nazim had a chemistry book as he had to give his chemistry paper the next day. Just then, with a loud noise, a tear gas shell fell into the room from the window. The shell was one of the tear gas shells fired by the security forces to deal with the stone pelters protesting outside.

Nazim also knew this thing, yet this incident affected Nazim’s heart and mind, so he could not even give the exam properly. In 12th, he got 71 percent marks, while Nazim’s target was to get at least 85 percent. Based on that result, he took admission to BSC and prepared for medical entrance, but that incident remained in his mind in such a way that he used to remember it repeatedly while studying. So, Nazim started keeping himself busy with beekeeping to divert attention. Today his achievements are no less than becoming a doctor.

However, Nazim took up beekeeping as a hobby. Then he brought only two boxes. These were cans of European-bred bees Apis mellifere, which were given to Nazim for free by a friend of his father. People here also call it Italy fly. When the number of flies started to increase, Nazim made 3 out of his two boxes but it was a novice. Within a few days the bees in all the three boxes were gone. Says Nazim, “I felt really bad that day.” After this, Nazim started taking beekeeping seriously.

While searching the internet, he came to know about Khadi Village Industries Department, where training in beekeeping was given. This is a seven day course. Nazim explains that it was here that he met Imran Majeed, who got him the first 10 boxes. At that time the season of blossoming of flowers was at puberty. This spring became the wind of his success. He got 40 kg of honey from these 10 boxes. When Nazim made 10 to 15 boxes with the help of his learned skills, he got 15 more boxes. They had to pay half the cost of these boxes because as per the government scheme, they had 50 per cent subsidy. Nazim says that the second time when the honey was taken out of the box, its quantity was 70 kg, but the completely pure honey was bought by the local traders for 600 rupees per kg.

Shifting of flies from Kashmir to Rajasthan 

It was a small success in the field of beekeeping. Now the challenge was what to do with the flies in winter because flies are not active in extreme cold. The problem was solved by Nazim’s friend Baldev, who had taken beekeeping training with him. Baldev is a farmer from Suratgarh in Sri Ganga Nagar district of Rajasthan. Bee boxes were transported to Baldev’s farm from his Sambura village in Pulwama, Kashmir, via transport. However, it cost Rs 25,000. After this the work of Nazim started. The Nazim not only increased honey production, but also started making and selling bee boxes. Moreover, not only other beekeepers but also government departments started buying boxes from Nazim.

From a Farmer to a Businessman 

Kashmiri farmer Nazim started as a farmer and became a businessman. Simultaneously, Nazim also started giving free beekeeping training and counselling to interested youth. Nazim says that he has trained more than 1000 youths so far. Many of these have taken up beekeeping as an employment. Nazim first took to social media to get the right price for his honey. He started getting orders for supply when he filled honey in small packing and posted his photo on social media. Initially, 6-7 orders used to arrive in a single day. Encouraged by fair pricing from retail supplies, Nazim launched its brand – Al Nahl Honey in 2021. He went to Delhi and got the designing and manufacturing of bottles and stickers. Now, he sell honey in three size bottles. Nazim built the website himself and did sales promotion on social media.

More Order, Less Goods

Today, Nazim’s honey business has more orders and less goods. They produce 10-12 quintals of honey in a year. Recently a merchant family from Gujarat came to buy honey from him. In Delhi, UP, Mumbai, they send honey through transport. Seeing their products on the internet, orders have come from as far as France and UAE, but Nazim cannot export his honey abroad due to lack of export license. His effort is now to move towards exporting. At the same time, for more production, he kept more boxes in Rajasthan. Also, due to  cold weather of Kashmir, honey can be extracted only 2 times a year and that too 5 kg of honey is obtained from a box. Whereas in Rajasthan, honey comes out of the box 4 to 5 times a year and is about 10 kg at a time i.e. 40 to 50 kg of honey.

Plan to build an academy for beekeeping training 

Nazim strongly believes in adopting new or state-of-the-art methods, use of new technology and updating itself from the production of honey to the sales. Due to this, he earns an average of fifty thousand rupees per month. Now he has also made a small office in the village. Nazim is now making another plan to make youth like himself honey producers and beekeepers. Under this, he wants to open an academy where a formal Beekeeping course will be conducted. This will be a 10 day course in which all the information about beekeeping will be given.

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