doing yeoman service to man by pollinating various agricultural and horticultural crops and play a vital role in conserving biodiversity of plants by acting as “Natural Breeders”. Honey bees have coevolved with flowering plants and have undergone several morphological, anatomical and nutritional adaptations and have emerged as the most reliable sources of crop pollination in the world. Due to their high floral constancy, individual bee makes repeated visits to the same floral sources till it is exhausted. Experiments conducted in various parts of the world have demonstrated significant increase in seed/ fruit yield in cross-pollinated crops. Cross pollination by honey bees provides the plant species with greater genetic variability in the off-springs than that by self pollination, thereby providing the plant species greater opportunity to produce new varieties enabling them to adapt to new environments and to occupy different ecological areas.
India is blessed with all the species of honey bees mainly Apis cerana, Apis mellifera,
Apis dorsata and Apis florea in addition to sting less bees and non - Apis solitary bees. A. dorsata occurs throughout India, while A. florea is mainly confined to peninsular,
Western and Eastern India. Apis mellifera beekeeping is practiced in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and parts of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. Apis cerana beekeeping is traditionally being practiced in peninsular India, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and North- East India. India is also bestowed with different ecosystem as well as diversified bee flora with very high potential in high honey yield and other hive products. However, in spite of many government and non government agencies involved in promoting beekeeping, significant progress has
not been achieved so far. Even in absence of data from formal source in this regard, it is felt that honey production has not recorded expected growth inspite of concerted effort under various horticulture development programmes thorugh an organisation named as National Bee Board set up in PPP mode.
The dwindling production of honey may be first attributed to the outbreak of Thaisac brood virus disease during 1976 in India, more than 90 per cent Apis cerana bee colonies were lost which resulted in a catastrophic decline in honey yield. Apis
mellifera bee colonies suffer from ravages of brood mites, predatory birds and wasp.
Present state of stagnation in production of honey may be attributed mainly to- shortage of honey-bee colony and standard bee keeping equipments and lack of skilled human resources.
There is also a conceptual dimension to the problem of promotion of bee-keeping under programmes of horticulture development. Honey-bee-keeping is being promoted under such programmes of horticulture development by way of pollination support for increased production of horticulture crops. Honey production is, in other words, a by-product of pollination support initiative under horticulture development programmes. Bee keeping for only pollination support for any one horticulture crop may not be economically viable proposition unless it is adopted as an all-season economic activity which inter alia means management of bee colonies after the flowering season of horticulture orchard is over, including the general lean period when the pollination availability is at its lowest level. It also involves aspects of pest and disease control of honey-bee colonies.
Not only stagnation in production but lack of small scale processing technology and a system of traceability and quality control is adversely affecting the growth of this sector. The problem is further aggravated by absence of scientific prescriptions for disease control in European species of honey bee and indiscriminate import of chemical laden honey from neighbouring countries by certain exporters which has resulted into ban of import of Indian honey by EC Countries during XIth plan period. Therefore, bee keeping and honey production is yet another area of concern for XIIth plan period.
Honey production, processing and marketing is also looked after by Khadi & village Industries Boards. But the major problem of shortage of honey-bee colonies, securing availability of pollens by facilitating migration of bee boxes, small scale processing units, lack of availability of prescriptions regarding pest & disease control in bee- colonies and quality control need to be addressed by any central agency for which coordination among Ministry of Environment & Forest, Horticulture Division of DAC and Khadi & Village Industries Commission of Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India is needed most. Following developmental activities may, then be taken in coordinated manner-
i. Establishment of bee breeding centers for supply of bee colonies with improved strains
ii. Single window centers for distribution of bee keeping equipments and accessories. iii. Establishment of hands on training centers at Talukas / districts in model apiaries iv. Establishment of regional bee disease diagnostic centers and quality testing
laboratories.
v. War footing afforestation with bee foraging tree and plant species
vi. Strengthening of existing national level Apex body by bringing all the agencies involved in promotion of bee keeping under the fold of this apex body
vii. Extension of National Insurance policy to apiculture industries viii. Promotion of migratory beekeeping policies
ix. Development of scientific human resources
x. Inclusion of Apiculture in the curricula from middle school to degree level
xi. In line with krishi mission, national horticulture mission, organic mission a separate Bee keeping mission may be initiated
xii. Declaring all honey bee species as national assets and bringing them under relevant acts (wild life/biodiversity act)
xiii. Development of non-destructive methods to extract honey from wild bee species xiv. Popularizing beekeeping among women folk and tribes
xv. Use of safer/bee friendly pesticides
xvi. Preparation, extraction and popularization of plant species based branded honey (Coriander honey, Honge honey etc.,)
xvii. Development of literature and audio-video tools to promote beekeeping
The above SWOT analysis for horticulture sector will used for setting out growth target and strategy for XIIth plan period.