Honey production may fall this year

Honey production from mustard may fall in the district in the current season due to reduced cultivation of the crop and damage to the flowers caused by unfavorable weather conditions.

District Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Deputy Director (DD) Abdur Razzak said mustard was cultivated on 28,006 hectares of land in 12 upazilas in the district this season against the target of 38,000 hectares due to prolonged flood and heavy rain, along with dense fog. 

Honey cultivators from different districts of the country come to Tangail every year and set up their bee colonies (boxes) beside the mustard fields. Over 7,000 bee colonies were set up this year, they said.

Normally, cultivation of honey from mustard starts from November every year, but it was started in December this season due to unfavourable weather, said Nityananda Mondol, a honey cultivator who comes to Boro Basalia in Sadar upazila from Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira.

The mustard flowers were damaged by heavy rain and later attacked by diseases due to dense fog, reducing honey production, he added.

"I had collected about three tonnes of honey last year, but this year it looks like it will be less," he added.

Producers said they get honey  five times in a year; from mustard flowers from the second week of November till last week of January, guji til (oil seed) fields from last week of January to first week of March, litchi gardens during March, from keora, kholisa, goran and bain in the Sundarbans during March-April, and sada til (oil seed) fields from second week of April to second week of June. The rest of the year is off-season for honey cultivators.

There are around 2,500 honey cultivators, including 500 to 600 commercial cultivators, in the country, said Dulal Hossain, a honey cultivator of Panch Terilla village in Bhuapur upazila and also central unit President of Mou Chashi Kalyan Samity.

There are about 150 honey cultivators, including 76 commercial cultivators, in the district, he added.

Honey cultivators in the country produce around 3,000 tonnes of quality honey, with the highest mount -- 1,000 tonnes -- coming from mustard and about the same amount from litchi, while the rest come from other crops, Dulal said.  

The number of the honey cultivators in the country, however, is declining due to different problems, including unavailability of quality bees, he said.

Moreover, honey cultivators cannot get fair prices for their produce due to lack of necessary modern marketing facilities, Dulal added.

Honey bees help pollination of crops and increase yields, said Abdur Razzak, DD of DAE in the district.

Previously, mustard cultivators were afraid to  allow setting up bee colonies near their crop fields, fearing reduction of yield of the crop, but they changed their mind after agriculture officials assured them that they would get 15 to 20 percent increase in yield if bee colonies were set up near their fields, Razzak said.

There is a huge demand for honey in the country, especially from the food processing industries and pharmaceuticals companies, he added.

Necessary technology-based modern trainings will be provided to the honey cultivators for increasing their number across the country, Razzak said.

The initiative will contribute to increasing honey production in the country, he said.