Plan to promote honey bee farming on Margalla Hills

Islamabad: An ambitious plan to promote bee production in the Margalla Hills can greatly help improve the socio-economic conditions of the marginalized people who are currently living in different villages falling in the vicinity of the Margalla Hills National Park.

According to the flow-chart of the plan being discussed among the government sector agencies and institutions, the plan would have social and business models. The social model would focus on community mobilization; training on honey bee farming; formation of business groups; procurement and distribution of beehives; extraction and collection of honey; and support in branding and marketing.

While the business model would revolve around procurement of honey; collection and storage of raw honey; processing and packaging; marketing and sale; cost and benefit analysis; and reinvestment on social model.

The initial assessment of the plan states that the quality of honey is related to the health of a tree, as an older and healthier tree can bear good quality blooms and so the honey produced by the bee would also be of superior quality.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) would provide space for placement of honeybee colonies of Acacia (phauli), Granda, Bhaikar etc. at the Margalla Hills. Pakistan is a home to four famous honeybees including Apis Cerana (small bee), Apis Dorsata (wild bee), Apis Flori (little bee) and exotic Apis Mellifera having about 450,000 colonies with the capacity to produce 12,000 metric ton honey per year,

Social activist Saeeda Shafique said the beekeeping is a low-cost venture with the potential to have a tremendous impact in improving household livelihoods. She said the women are the most marginalized members of the society and their literacy level in rural areas is quite low, adding “There is a vast potential for women to adopt beekeeping as an enterprise that can help improve their quality of life.”