Jorjina Chakma earns extra money keeping bees beside the mustard field next to her house in the Dakshin Shantipur area of Panchhari.

Beekeeping is becoming popular in Ultachhari union of Panchhari. Farmers are turning to it because, alongside housework, a one-time investment brings repeated income without further costs. In all four villages of the union, more than 40 families are earning extra household income by selling honey.

A recent visit to Shantipur, Dakshin Shantipur Karmapara and Jhagur Nala, four kilometres from Panchhari bazar, found wooden boxes placed in courtyards, beside walls and among mustard and vegetable fields, where farmers keep bees to produce honey.

Beekeepers said each wooden box, or colony, costs Tk 3,000 to make. Queen bees are hard to find, and those who collect them from the forest sell them at high prices. Many new keepers lose their queen bees because they have no training. If they were trained, honey production would rise further.

Jorjina Chakma (35), a housewife in Dakshin Shantipur, said: "Four years ago I bought a queen bee for Tk 500 and put it in a wooden box at home. Within a few days bees began to come around the box. The bees roam the woods all day collecting honey and store it in the box. In the first year I sold three litres of honey for Tk 3,600. The next year I added another box. Now I get more than nine kg of honey a year from three boxes."

Not only Jorjina Chakma: Suchanda Khisa, another housewife in Dakshin Shantipur, also keeps bees. She said she started five years ago with bees in three boxes in her courtyard. Honey sells for Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,200 a kg at the market, and she earns Tk 8,000 to Tk 10,000 a year selling honey, including through relatives.

Nimai Nath, the sub-assistant agriculture officer in charge of the union, also keeps bees. "After taking charge of this area I learned that many families were making extra money from honey. I first brought a queen bee and kept one box at home as a trial. Now I have 11 boxes, placed in various fields and under trees in the area. Last year I sold about 30 litres of honey," he said.

He added that beekeeping needs little care: the cost is low and the profit high. All that is needed is a queen bee and a box. Place a box with a queen in a corner of the house or the courtyard and the bees come, which makes it very convenient for people who are not well off.

Ultachhari union parishad chairman Bijoy Bikash Chakma said: "Residents of several villages in my union are keeping bees through their own efforts. If the government gave beekeepers training and loans, many more would come forward and the beekeepers would benefit."

Source: Prothom Alo. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.