Of Bees and Beyond: Stories from Under The Mango Tree Society, India

Debika Chatterjee, Senior Programme Manager, Under The Mango Tree Society - www.utmtsociety.org

Top: Women beekeepers in a cillage in western India catching Cerana swarms.

Under The Mango Tree Society (UTMTS) is an award-winning not-for-profit organisation in India, that offers beekeeping with indigenous bees to tribal farmers for enhancing their agriculture through improved pollination. It started in 2009 with the vision of providing beekeeping as an agricultural input to small and marginal farmers*, to increase their crop yields and income, protecting and enhancing the local population of indigenous honey bees by creating awareness in the local communities about their role as ecosystem service providers, and encouraging beekeepers to adopt bee-friendly agriculture practices. The beekeeping programme of UTMT Society expanded over the years to include income enhancing opportunities along the beekeeping value chain, such as the setting up of micro enterprises that specialised in beekeeping inputs and enrolling local trainers and other service providers to support beekeepers. Since then, UTMT Society has received several awards and accolades, including the World Bank Award in 2013 and the HCL Foundation Award in 2020. Currently, it has presence in around 300 villages in 14 districts in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Even as the organisation has progressed in leaps and bounds, the Society is focussed on working with Indigenous Bees, primarily the Apis cerana indica and stingless bees, to improve pollination cover for smallholder agriculture. Beekeeping with the local indigenous bee is well suited to the diversified farming systems found in tribal communities. Input costs are low because the bee is locally available (wild hives are domesticated) and resilient (little need for antibiotics). Since the bees are well adapted to the local environment, they subsist on existing flora without needing to migrate the boxes, as is required for A.mellifera. So, even when A.cerana is less productive in making honey than its European cousin, it is an excellent pollinator. Some of the key impacts of UTMT Society’s work have been:

1) Reduction in unsustainable honeyhunting practises

2) Increase in crop production

3) Creating other sources of livelihood generation

4) Diversified agriculture

5) Increased green-cover and biodiversity

Reduction in unsustainable honey-hunting

Honey-hunting is the method of extracting honey from bee hives found in the wild, and it mostly involves killing bees residing in colonies in the wild so as to obtain combs containing honey and brood (larvae & pupae). In rural communities, honey hunting still remains an integral way of collecting honey, as the hunters are unaware of the consequences of destroying bees and their habitats. Through awareness programmes, UTMT Society informs and explains how bees help in pollination and how pollination is crucial for agriculture and maintaining the biodiversity of the surrounding forests.

“Being a traditional honey hunter, every year I used to destroy around 5-7 bee colonies for honey. I have stopped it completely now”, shares Prafulbhai Bagul, a 32-year-old beekeeper from the Dangs district in Gujarat. Now his perception has shifted from ‘bees for honey’ to ‘bees for pollination’. He also actively participates in sensitizing others in his community about bees, beekeeping and how it impacts our environment.

Similarly, Kaliram Rajbhopa, from the Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh, used to be a traditional honeyhunter. He says “I had no idea that Cerana bees can be domesticated, and unknowingly I have destroyed so many hives in the past. I was amazed to learn about the benefits of beekeeping during the beekeeping training”.

Increase in crop-production

Despite being life-long farmers, a lot of the small and marginal farmers do not understand the concept of pollination. One of the things that is explained in great detail during the two-day basic beekeeping training offered by UTMT Society, is how bees pollinate flowers to form fruits. Before the training, most of the farmers link bees only to honey, but later there has been a sea change in their attitude towards bees and also towards the entire environment.

Ajaybhai Kokani, a 27-year-old beekeeper, from the Halmundi village in Tapi district of Gujarat, farms on two acres of agricultural land, which earns him an annual income of Rs 80,000. Trained in 2020, he currently has three filled bee boxes in his farm. He was pleasantly surprised to see the increase in the harvest quantity of Mango and Watermelon post beekeeping. Previously he used to harvest 1400 kg of Watermelon by sowing one kg of seeds, but after beekeeping he harvested 2000 kg of Watermelon. Bhabhut Kayda, a beekeeper from Charkheda village, in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh is now keen to preserve indigenous bees and promote beekeeping among other villagers. He says “My work has helped me understand that conserving the bee population is a local solution to our ever-pressing problem of decline in agricultural productivity”. He thinks that the beekeeping training programme made it easy for farmers like him to bring the bees to their farms. He now correlates better produce with the greater number of bees in his farm. Bhabhut Kayda explains, “I was able to earn Rs 15,000 additionally from the sale of surpluses of Chickpeas and Peas this year, after I placed filled bee boxes on my agricultural land. Post placing the bee boxes, I was able to harvest 90 kg of Chickpea, which was only 40 kg before beekeeping, even though I used the same quantity of seeds and other inputs. Also, the size of grains of both Chickpeas and Peas were bigger, which fetched me good price when I sold in market locally. I am very happy that I am a beekeeper”.

Creating other sources of livelihood generation

A locally-made Cerana beebox.

UTMT Society also impacts the local community by developing micro-enterprises as part of the beekeeping input-supply chain, which in turn contributes to the livelihoods of local people. Micro-enterprises associated with beekeeping have led to new livelihoods, like womens’ Self Help Groups and local carpenters making and selling beekeeping-related inputs. The villagers trained in carpentry are taught how to make bee boxes within the village, so that the beekeepers can purchase the resources directly from them and at a much lower price, since there is no transportation cost involved. It has also helped the local carpenter in generating extra income. For example, a carpenter from the Tuterkhed village, in Dharampur block in Valsad, Gujarat says, “The scope of carpentry work was limited in the village so we had to migrate outside for work as unskilled labourers in workshops as we lacked advanced skills and had no equipment. But with the establishment of the carpentry unit, a local avenue for livelihood has been created.”

Another such avenue of livelihood generation has been through bee-veil and swarm-bag Womens’ Self Help Groups (WSHGs), where women are trained in making bee-veils and swarmbags in tailoring workshops organised by the Society. In some places UTMT Society has helped the local women set up beeflora nursery WSHGs, where saplings of bee-friendly indigenous plants are grown and sold to the villagers.

Diversified agriculture

UTMT Society’s beekeeping programme has also encouraged farmers to not limit their agriculture to monsoon crops, but also take up winter cropping through its beeflora intervention (wherein the seeds and saplings are provided to farmers at 50% contribution). Some of the seeds commonly distributed are that of Chilli, Bottle gourd, Sponge gourd, Ladies finger, Sunhemp, Brinjal, Sesame, etc., which has resulted in a number of farmers expanding their agriculture beyond subsistence farming.

Increased green cover and biodiversity

Saplings of indigenous trees, planted as part of the beeflora initiative, improve the green cover of the area. Longterm trees, such as Jamun (Java plum), Drumstick, Apple Jujube, Indian Gooseberry, Litchi, Lemon and Guava provide nectar and pollen for the bees, while also improving the green cover of that area. Some of these flowers also serve as pasturage for other types of pollinators and flower visitors from various insect orders.

We can safely say that beekeeping is an activity that not only tackles hunger and poverty at grassroots level, but also addresses inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity enhancement. UTMT Society’s ‘Bees for Poverty Reduction’ (BPR) programme addresses ten of the twenty SDGs by offering beekeeping with indigenous bees and flora enhancement measures to tribal populations practicing agriculture in some of the most backward areas of the country.

Can you name the 10 SDGs we are talking about?

Follow Us or Tag Us at:

Facebook: /utmtsociety

Instagram: /utmt.society

Twitter: @societyutmt

Linkedin: /company/utmtsociety

Lack of trees

Top and above: Naturally occurring Cerana colonies in the hollow of a tree and under an abandoned basket.

Above and below: Colonies placed in hives made of mud which due to the climate are not very resilient.

Summer in most of India lasts for 4 to 5 months and is very hot and dry. Drought-like conditions make crop production very difficult.

Building hives

Completed hives

To prevent pests entering the hives the legs are placed in a tin of liquid.

Comb building

Examining hives & collecting swarms

Honey harvesting

Drought conditions make crop production difficult. Wells need to be very deep for water to be collected. All the water has to be carried from the well to the crops. Crops include: maize, beans and mangoes. The plants produce nectar and pollen for the bees, bees provide the pollination neccesary for seed and fruit production.

The state of Maharashtra faces drought like situation almost every year, because of climate change and fast depletion of ground water level.

Kitchen garden planted during the summer months where the farmers use gray water for their plants. The produce is used for self-consumption. (Maharashtra)

Collecting data about agriculture production. (Gujarat)

Cashew, one of the key cash crops grown in Gujarat, gets greatly impacted by bees.

This is Warli painting, a form of tribal art done by the Warli people in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Warli culture is centered on the concept of Mother Nature and elements of nature are often focal points depicted in Warli painting.

The young girl is holding indigenous variety of Brinjals.

It is important that the bees are given appropriate shade during the hot season. One of the village UTMT training centres.

Beekeeping Resource Centre in a village in Maharashtra.

Another village training centre with educational posters and examples of tribal art.