Workshop on Sustainable Beekeeping Development

Dharwad, Karnataka, India 1-5 August 1998

This Workshop on Sustainable Beekeeping Development was attended by 347 people including apicultural scientists, project workers and beekeepers. Government and NGO staff from throughout India, and FAOsponsored resource persons from Vietnam, joined FAO personnel from Bangkok, New Delhi and Rome. Beekeepers also travelled from Nepal to participate in the Workshop.

The FAO project in Karnataka State has focused on strengthening the apicultural skills of extension staff, such that they know how to manage the indigenous bee Apis cerana for worthwhile and productive beekeeping. Extension staff have also been encouraged to consider honey hunters as part of the apicultural community who can benefit from assistance most honey in India is harvested from the rock bee, Apis dorsata.

In some parts of India Apis mellifera is generating significant income for beekeepers: Government personnel and beekeepers in favour of Apis mellifera were also well represented at the Workshop.

The Workshop took as it themes those areas which have been significant issues for the FAO project. These included:

-Income generation from beekeeping and honey hunting;

- Beekeeping extension and training; Bee products and value addition;

- Consideration of the benefits of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera beekeeping;

- Thai sacbrood virus and its control;

- Queen rearing in Apis cerana.

The State of Karnataka Directorate of Industries and Commerce arranged Honey Festival to be held simultaneously with the Workshop. This also took place in Dharwad and local and national honey co-operatives and traders displayed their products, as well as technical institutes and NGOs displaying their services and skills. The Workshop and Festival together stimulated considerable media interest, with reports appearing in many newspapers, on radio and television.

FAO SUPPORT FOR APICULTURE IN KARNATAKA

The Workshop was sponsored by FAO (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization). The Workshop was intended to conclude and assess the work achieved during the 18-month period of FAO support for apicultural development in Karnataka State. This was provided under FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme.

Karnataka State sought assistance from FAO to promote apiculture as source of income-generation for landless people. In previous years beekeeping with Apis cerana was believed to have become difficult due to the presence of the virus disease, Thai sacbrood. It was proposed that way to overcome this difficulty was to introduce the European honeybee Apis mellifera and promote its use amongst landless people.

However, assessment of the prevailing situation in Karnataka revealed that the answer did not lie in the introduction of an exotic species of bee. Extension staff had little practical beekeeping experience or training and had few resources available. The introduction of Apis mellifera would be likely to benefit only wealthier farmers and would not be sustainable for the project’s intended target group: landless people.

The FAO project therefore focused on strengthening the skills and resources of the extension service. Extension officers received training in how to manage Apis cerana, how to use queen rearing to multiply colonies, how to control Thai sacbrood virus, and how to generate maximum income from the products of beekeeping and honey hunting.