Primary problem in rural area is unemployment and non availability of sources of income generation. Javed Ahmad Ganie, a young energetic man of Ishber Nishat in District could not complete his graduation due to poverty and started his family business of Agri-Farming by which he could hardly manage to feed his large family. After some time Javed come to know about bee keeping through some news papers and friends. Beekeeping sounded very new and different for Javed Ahmad and he came in contact with Division of Entomology, SKUAST-K at Krishi Vigyan Kendra Srinagar. After having some fruitful discussions and advised from expert of KVK, he made of his mind to start beekeeping as full time profession and decided to attend the trainings and became first to start beekeeping in the village. After completing training from KVK Srinagar, he purchased some colonies and started a small unit.
The encouraging results forced him to purchase more colonies and expand his unit and today he is proud owner of 45 colonies and says bees are part of my family and worries about them like his own children. Javed Ahmad has some land at Harwan Srinagar where kept his colonies during spring and summer. Javed has experienced that there is also 30-40% increase in yield of crops sown there.
Due to the harsh winters and lack of flora in winter, the bee-keepers usually in Kashmir migrate their colonies outside the valley during winters to the places which are warmer and plenty of flora is available. The migration of colonies cost huge amount on transportation and rent etc. Interestingly Javed Ahmad has developed some innovative technology called “Winter Packing” of colonies. Bee-keepers usually keep 07 farmers per colony and Javed Ahmed keep 8-10 farmers per colony in winter packing to keep them warmer. One sugar candy of 250 grams is kept on the top of the frames per colony which is sufficient for 12-15 days for one colony to feed and bees do not need to come out in search of flora. The boxes are covered with news paper and gunny bags to keep them warmer. The bees suck the moisture of candy. In the 2nd week of February if the weather is pleasant, the bees start coming out of their colonies and migration of colonies is avoided in this way and huge exchequer on unnecessary operation is also avoid. However, things have not exchanged for Javed Ahmad, he collects 30-40 Kgs of honey per colony per crop and 2-3 crops per season which gave him a handsome annual income to feed his family and live happily. As per Javed Ahmad, bee-keeping and production of honey has potential to provide major source of income generation, with valley rich in flora and fauna, a number of unemployed can involve themselves with this income generating enterprise.
