Honey organic mela to boost urban interest in apiculture

Mangaluru: Even as the department of horticulture is readying itself for the two-day second edition of honey and organic mela that gets under way at Kadri Park on Saturday, it is striving to promote the positives from maiden edition of mela last year. This can be gauged from fact that the demonstration arranged on apiculture has enthused urbanites to turn to apiarists and the department has already given boxes and bee colonies to more than 60 households in the city.
H R Yogish, deputy director, department of horticulture, sharing details of the mela, told reporters that unlike rural farmers who get up to 50% subsidy to take up apiculture, the lack of same has not deterred their urban counterparts to dabble in this profession.“There have been consistent enquiries about apiculture since the mela last year and we have supplied boxes, bee colonies to residents and trained them,” he said, adding the department will promote it further this year.
Rearing a bee colony has a positive impact on the local eco-system for bees are a major source of cross pollination that leads to fruits and flowers maturing in time, he said, adding that people have kept upto 10 boxes in certain cases and are obtaining 15 kg yield of honey from their venture. The department had promoted apiculture alongside kitchen and terrace gardening and the response to the former and demand for training has far exceeded our expectation, he said.
While the department mooted the idea of the mela purely as an outreach programme for farmers, the interest shown by city dwellers has come as a bonus, he said. This interest has not been limited to apiculture, but also organic farming and organic products, he said. There is also a keenness among stakeholders to know about organic certification for home grown organic products, Yogish said, adding the department is providing necessary assistance and linkages to people.
Regarding the fest, Yogish said visitors will get to see live honeybee colonies of different species, equipment used in bee keeping, exhibition-cum-sale of honey, information on medicinal values of honey, preparation of different beverages using honey and exhibition-cum-sale of medicines made of honey. The organic mela will showcase organic products from organic growers, exhibit and market organic products and value added products and sale of vegetable seeds.