New Institute opened in India

Beekeeping in India took a further step forward with the formal opening of the new building of the Central Bee Research Institute in Pune, on 28 April 1985. India’s Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, the Honourable Mr. V. N. Gadgil opened the building at a function held under the presidentship of Mr. A. M. Thomas, Chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the parent body of the Central Bee Research Institute (CBRI).

The Minister, expressing his happiness over the pioneering work done by CBRI, said that it was important to take the results of beekeeping research to the field, with a view to increasing production. Beekeeping is one industry which can be taken up by everyone and its expansion will lead towards the village upliftment and independence visualised by Gandhi.

Tracing the history of beekeeping in the country, Mr. Thomas mentioned the significant achievements made by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission in the field of development of beekeeping. There are now 800,000 bee colonies kept in 35,000 villages by nearly 200,000 beekeepers, who yearly produce over 6,000 tonnes of honey valued at RS 90 million.

The New Building

The new building is double storeyed, and built in a ‘T’ shape. The administration wing is in the head of the T on the ground floor, and the scientific sections are in the stem portion.

There is a library wing on the upper floor accommodating books, reprints and journals from throughout the world, and also a reprographics section. The scientific sections include apiculture, bee breeding, instrumentation and rockbee on the ground floor and pollination, palynology, botany, pathology, entomology and biochemistry sections on the upper floor. A spacious seminar hall is being furnished for monthly seminars workshops and other meetings.

A museum is being developed in the ground floor hall. The Institute premises also have separate buildings for a workshop and guest house. The workshop will be used for design and development of beekeeping equipment, and for testing honey processing outfits.

The origins of CBRI

The opening of the new building marked the end of the 23-year problem of accommodation for the Institute, which has up until now been housed in several small residential premises. The CBRI began in 1952 as a small apicultural research centre with Prof. G. B. Deodikar and Shri. C. V. Thakar starting an integrated bee research programme. This was at Mahabaleshwar and was founded at the instance of Shri S. G. Shende, the then Regional Organiser of Beekeeping for the Bombay Village Industries Committee. Up until then the development programme using movable-frame bee boxes had been showing indifferent progress, although they had been introduced in the early 1930s. The Indian beekeeping industry had been largely forest-based, while that in the western countries was farm or orchard-based. The Indian hive bee (Apis cerana) is about one third smaller in size than the western bee (Apis mellifera), so there were great variations in beekeeping between east and west, in climate, soils, vegetation and in the bees themselves, and a new type of beekeeping management was required for using movable-frame hives under Indian conditions. Since the people involved in the industry were mostly rural, tribal and forest populations, they could not under- Stand these variations and were content to use the traditional unhygienic and uneconomical methods. This Situation called for a thorough understanding of the bees, bee plants, conditions of the people and the total ecosystem in each beekeeping region. The different scientific disciplines involved (bee botany, entomology, bee management, ethology, bee pathology, chemistry, cytogenetics and bee breeding), made it necessary to approach the problem of improvement in the efficiency of the beekeeping industry in a comprehensive manner, with attention paid to all these aspects. This was how the research programme was undertaken by Prof. Deodikar and Shri Thakar, and it showed encouraging results in the Mahabaleshwar plateau. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission recognised the importance of a strong research base for improving the beekeeping industry and established the CBRI at Pune in 1962, entrusting it with the responsibility of apicultural research and training. The Beekeeping Directorate in Bombay looks after extension and marketing aspects of beekeeping. Thus the research, training, extension and marketing wings of the beekeeping industry go hand in hand towards the integrated development of the industry in India.

During the past twenty years the Institute has risen by its dedicated and systematic work to an important national Institute, and has recently received international recognition.

Research

The Institute has now studied over 3,000 flowering plants for their value to honeybees as sources of nectar and/or pollen. In addition, botanical surveys, preparation of floral calendars and vegetation maps for each beekeeping region, and the introduction, multiplication and propagation of important bee plants are just some of the programmes under the department of bee botany. Microscopical analysis of pollen loads and honeys are undertaken in the department of melittopalynology.

Investigations on the floral biology of crop plants, foraging behaviour of bees on them, experiments on the use of honeybees for crop pollination, and demonstrations of the value of honeybees in increasing crop yields are made in the bee pollination department.

In the department of apiculture, equipment such as hives and honey and wax-extractors are designed, evaluated and standardised. Experimental apiaries are located in representative beekeeping areas and the bee colonies are observed throughout the year to formulate appropriate seasonal bee management. All the experimental colonies are observed for various qualitative and quantitative characteristics, breeding apiaries are set up to secure combinations of desired qualities, and colonies with improved performance are multiplied and distributed to beekeepers.

The department of entomology is concerned with the studies of the biometry and characterization of different strains of Indian and other honeybees, and possible utilization of rockbees for honey production and crop pollination without destroying their nests. The department of bee pathology carries out investigations on pathogens, pests and predators and their control.

Studies on the physical and chemical characteristics of honey, beeswax and other bee products, evolving methods of their hygienic collection, processing, storage and quality control are some projects under the department of chemistry.

The Institute has 15 Field Observation Stations keeping about 1500 experimental bee colonies (Apis cerana) in different parts of India. In its Pathankot (Punjab) and Haldwani (Uttar Pradesh) centres, the Institute is making comparative studies on Apis mellifera and native bee species.

CBRI functions as the Centre of the All India Co-ordinated Project on Honey Bee Research and Training of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research with co-operating centres in 10 Agricultural Universities.

The Institute houses the Tropical Asia Branch of the Library of the International Bee Research Association and has a good collection of books, and a complete holding of IBRA journals and abstract cards.

Training

CBRI runs training programmes at a variety of levels and has recently accepted research and extension workers from other Asian and African countries for training.

The future

The targets for beekeeping development during the next five years and the broad approach to reach these targets were discussed at a three day meeting of the senior beekeeping staff of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, which was organised for the opening of the CBRI building. This was attended by about 30 Development Officers and in charges of the state beekeeping extension programmes.

Central Bee Research Institute, Khadi & Village Industries Commission.

Dr. R. P. Phadke kindly supplied the material for this article.