Jeypore: Adopting alternative vocations like beekeeping other than agriculture has brought a turnaround in the life of many farmers in Koraput district, sources said Monday. This development comes at a time when income from cultivation is declining due to climate change, erratic monsoon, lack of irrigation facility and pest attacks. The change came after the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and voluntary outfit ‘Harsh Trust’ goaded the farmers to take up beekeeping to boost their incomes. This helped the farmers become self-reliant and earn their livelihood without any dependency on others.
Reports said that NABARD and the voluntary outfit first involved over 250 poor tribal farmers in Nandapur and Boipariguda blocks and helped them in beekeeping. The two agencies spend over Rs 1,41,12,595 to start the cultivation and provided farmers with bees, beekeeping boxes and honeycomb machines. They also trained the farmers on the process of bee cultivation. The farmers toiled hard and produced 2,455 kilogram of honey within 10 months of starting the cultivation.
A total of 110 farmers of Gandhiguda, Ambapada, Kiram, D Khudub and Andari villages sold the honey and earned around Rs 2.87 lakh which is no mean feat. However, a few months later bee cultivation was affected due to incessant rainfall, pest attacks and scarcity of flowers. Farmers appeared to be distressed lot after the development.
However, officials of Harsh Trust and the DDM of NABARD met the farmers at Nandapur and motivated them to take up beekeeping again. They provided the farmers with all the facilities needed for bee cultivation. The renewed efforts acted like a catalyst for the farmers as they again took up beekeeping and reaped the benefits from cultivation.
Tribal farmers Madhu Khara, Bibidas Matam, Malesh and others expressed their thanks to NABARD and the voluntary organisation for making them self-reliant through beekeeping when income from agriculture is dipping. Things have changed for the better and now farmers are coming forward to take up beekeeping as alternative form of livelihood. Learning about their achievement, NABARD’s Odisha head and an MP from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh recently visited Gandhaguda village and interacted with the farmers on beekeeping.