Scaling up production a test for Nagaland Honey

December 6, 2022 55 Views No Comment

Nagaland Honey Bee Day 2022

Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 6

The Nagaland Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) is today 15 years old. This undertaking of the state government has been instrumental in not only transforming the traditional method of beekeeping but also putting the brand— Nagaland Honey on the national map.

It is a highly sought after produce from Nagaland, popular for the ‘organic’ branding it has earned over the past decade or so. But it has one big bottleneck to conquer— meeting demand.

With the production challenge hanging overhead, the 4th Nagaland Honey Bee Day 2022 was observed at the NBHM Multi Utility Centre, located at 6th Mile, Chümoukedima, on December 5. The NBHM has set an annual production target of 2000 metric tonnes by 2030 and to achieve this, the state has to scale up production, Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC), Y Kikheto Sema.

Sema, who is also the NBHM’s Mission Director, said that the objective should be to enhance production by 200 metric tonnes (MT) annually from the current per annum harvest of approximately 440 MT.

Nagaland, with its fertile soil, has potential for a thriving agro-based industry, among which beekeeping has been one prime area, he said. According to him, “66 percent of our land has great beekeeping potential” and if the approximated area is used, production can increase to 10,000 MT, while producing a cascading effect, in the form of generating some 600-700 direct employment and indirect employment of around 15,000-16,000. He said, “Today, there is tremendous improvement in attitude in the minds of the farmers as well. I would like to tell my (NBHM) team, don’t shy away from stepping forward.”

Sluggish growth
While the unique selling point has been the organic branding, the production of Nagaland Honey has remained rather stagnant over the past 4-5 years with annual production not going beyond the 400-450 MT mark. On the occasion of the first Nagaland Honey Bee Day in 2018, The Morung Express, quoting official figures, reported that the annual production, at the time (2017-18), was around 420MT.

Queried on this, on the sideline of the main programme, the APC held that the COVID-19 pandemic and drought-like situation last year, besides the effects of climate change, combined to hit farmer-harvests. Earlier at the programme, a progressive beekeeper noted a decrease in production from his bee colonies in recent years.

NBHM Deputy Team Leader, Khuvozoyi Vese was optimistic of achieving the 2000 MT per annum target. “We are committed to trying. We will try to achieve the target,” he said.

Another team member though added that it would also depend on the resources made available to the Mission to implement beekeeping programmes.

The APC was further asked if the state government has been making the requisite budgetary allocation to the NBHM. To this, he replied that the problem of money does not arise, actually, as the Union Agriculture Ministry has schemes to support the honey mission. “I have been telling them to prepare project proposals and send it to the state government.

We will forward to the (Agriculture) Ministry,” he said. However, it came with the caveat that the scope of the proposals should not be confined to individual small-scale ventures but envisioned as “clusters” or collectives covering wide areas.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/scaling-up-production-a-test-for-nagaland-honey