Honey is being collected from field after field in Ishwardi, with bees busy gathering nectar from flower to flower and rows of bee boxes lined up beside the mustard fields. The local agriculture department says placing bee boxes beside mustard fields increases pollination and yields, while selling the honey brings in good money. Although there used to be no target for honey collection, the agriculture department has set targets in the past few years.

Beekeepers have come to Ishwardi from different districts. In village after village, bee boxes have been lined up beside mustard fields. Each box contains a queen bee. Drawn by the queen, worker bees collect nectar from the mustard flowers and store honey in the comb inside the box, from which the beekeepers collect honey every day.

The scene can be seen in seven unions of Ishwardi. The beekeepers said they come to Ishwardi upazila every year to collect lychee and mustard honey using the box method. They collect about 300 kg of honey per box a week on average.

Salam Sheikh of Sahapur village said he has grown mustard on 10 bighas this year and hopes to harvest 6-7 maunds a bigha. Beside his field, honey is being collected by artificial means: beekeeper Siraj Pramanik is working with 70 bee boxes.

Siraj Pramanik said: "Each box has a queen. Countless bees roam the mustard flowers within 3 kilometres, gather nectar and return to the queen. The keepers collect honey from there. Through this process, I hope to collect about 2 tonnes of honey this year."

Ashikur Rahman has come from Satkhira to collect honey. He said several of them come together to Ishwardi upazila every year. They have placed 200 bee boxes in Patirajpur village of the upazila and are collecting an average of 300 kg of honey per box a week.

Sub-assistant agriculture officer Zahidul Islam Zahid told Jago News: "Mustard has been grown on 1,750 hectares in the upazila. Honey collection is going on in several villages. One group has told the agriculture office it has collected 350 kg of honey. How many maunds have been collected will be known at the end of the season."

Upazila agriculture officer Krishibid Mita Sarkar said: "When bees are kept beside mustard fields, yields rise by 10-20 per cent, and the mustard crop is likely to be good as well. Collecting honey from mustard fields at no cost is profitable. Beekeepers profit financially from selling honey, while mustard yields also increase."

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