Continuous cold waves and dense fog throughout the mustard season meant that beekeepers in Dinajpur could not collect the honey they had hoped for, despite every effort, and they have suffered losses as a result. To recover, the district's beekeepers are now preparing to collect honey from litchi blossom.

According to the Dinajpur district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), mustard was grown on 27,197 hectares in the district this season. Because mustard is grown over large areas of Dinajpur every year, beekeepers collect large quantities of honey from its flowers. This year too they made extensive preparations and set up bee boxes in the mustard fields.

By the end of the season, however, the beekeepers had not collected even 10 per cent of their target. Persistent cold waves and dense fog prevailed at the height of the mustard season. The fog and long spells without sunshine caused the petals of the mustard flowers to rot. Even where boxes had been placed in the fields, the bees could not leave them because of the sustained cold. So although two months of the honey season have passed, the beekeepers could not collect honey as planned. Thousands of bees also died in the bad weather.

Unable to collect the honey they wanted, and having lost large numbers of bees, the district's beekeepers have faced severe financial losses.

Beekeeper Rakib Hasan Rifat said he had 40 bee boxes. Because of the bad weather, bees have died and his farm has shrunk to half that number of boxes. He said it takes about 22 to 25 days for a bee to be born, and it will be a struggle to rebuild the number of bees he has lost.

Rakib said he first set up his boxes in mustard fields in Gaibandha, then in Birganj, and now at Hili in Hakimpur. In all he has spent Tk 3 lakh to Tk 4 lakh. Far from earning from honey, the whole Tk 4 lakh is his loss, he said.

Rakib Hasan Rifat said that although he suffered heavy losses on mustard this year, he will try to make them up on litchi. If there is no rain or adverse weather, they hope to recover the losses by collecting honey from litchi blossom.

Ruhul Amin, extension officer of the beekeeping programme of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), said that because of the bad weather beekeepers could not collect a satisfactory amount of honey from the mustard fields this year, leaving them with losses.

He said litchi blossom will arrive next month, so they are advising beekeepers to increase the number of boxes and collect honey from it. If the weather is favourable, beekeepers will be able to make up the loss with litchi honey.

Ruhul Amin said there are 30 registered beekeepers in Dinajpur district, but during the litchi season more than 150 beekeepers come from different parts of the country to collect honey. The district has great potential for the honey industry, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.