PALAKKAD: A group of women from the district have found a novel way to support their family financially, thanks to meliponiculture or beekeeping with stingless bees, promoted by a number of self-help groups. “Our slogan is ‘one colony of stingless bees in each homestead’,” principal scientist of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Vallayani, Stephen Devanesan said.Meliponiculture being practised on a commercial basis in the homesteads aimed at ensuring a decent income. The ‘cherutheneecha” (stingless bees) seen in the crevices of walls and tree trunks are being bred to produce honey. A training class was conducted for around 300 self-help groups recently under the auspices of the Thachampara krishibhavan and the Kalpaka self-help group, Machanthode. The next training session will be held at St Mary’s Parish Hall, Palakkayam, on February 21.Devanesan had submitted a project on honey bees and pollinators to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which is now being implemented through the KAU.It was under his leadership that the KAU has standardised the technology and is being dessiminated to different parts of the state. The ICAR is now promoting apiculture in 16 agriculture university colleges in the country under his coordination.According to him, the state with diversified flora in its possession has great potential for commercial meliponiculture. “The ICAR not only intends to conserve stingless bees but also other pollinators for good yields (through higher pollination) and enhancement of food security,” Devanesan said.Moreover, he said that a large number of honeybee colonies were destroyed by the Thai sac brood virus in 1990 as a result of which the Indian bees used for commercial apiculture were affected. However, the KAU developed a virus tolerant strain of honeybees to overcome the problem.“A Malayalam book has been published to propagate the technique to households so as to make farmers aware of it,” Devanesan added.“The farmers are supplied with a queen bee, a few drone (male) bees and several worker bees. We provide the necessary training to the self-help groups with KAU’s support,” said managing director Bharath Beekeeping centre of Thrissur Sajaya Kumar, who is also a farmer. The fact that Silent valley, part of the Nilgiri biosphere, is nearby and it has abundant flora should not only aid pollination but also provide honey with great medicinal value. He pointed out that the ordinary honey mostly used for preparing medicines does not have all the medicinal values of ‘cheruthen’ since stingless bees collect nectar from medicinal plants like thulasi and kizhaar nelli. A mud pot, a bamboo hive and a wooden hive are enough for rearing stingless bees. Small-mouthed mud pots with an opening are fixed to walls. Stingless beeswax is kept in the mouth of the mud pot to attract bees. After about six months, the bees, which have entered the pots, are transferred to another pot. The transfer of feral bee colonies is done in November-December and the honey is extracted in March-April. One colony gives 200 ml to 600 ml of honey. A litre of honey costs `1,200,” said Machanthode Kalpaka self-help group president Ubaidullah Edaikkal.“The KAU technology was used in the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Kannur districts. Now it is being propagated in Palakkad district also,” Sajaya Kumar said .
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