Dr. Mahnoor Pervez
Beekeeping is an important and profitable agribusiness. Foreign exchange earnings thus make it a commercial agriculture enterprise currently around the globe. China is ranked as first in honey production, followed by Argentina and New Zealand. As per the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2023, China received a total of 1.6 million patent applications with 30% related to beekeeping and its allied aspects.
In Pakistan, large number of people especially in rural areas maintain beekeeping practices to meet their living. According to an estimate, there are 27000 beekeepers in Pakistan, having 4.5 lac colonies with approximately 12000 metric tons of honey per year (Honeybee Research Institute NARC, Islamabad).
Beekeeping is primarily practiced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Honeybee flora found throughout the Northern Areas, FATA and AJK can potentially support honeybee colonies. In Punjab province, only few districts such as Rawalpindi, Chakwal, and Jhelum are exploited by beekeepers. Here most cultivated species like Acacia, Shesham, Eucalyptus, Zizphus citrus, Brassica, and many other species give good quality honey. Under favorable environmental conditions, a single colony of honeybees can produce 12-25 kg of honey and approximately 7 kg of pollen annually. Pakistani honey is well known throughout the Middle East for its distinct aroma and flavor. Annually Pakistan sells roughly 4000 tons of honey to Arab countries. Beekeeping practices are not only a source of earning but also provide pollination services.
In Pakistan, pollination-dependent crops have a productivity worth of 1590 million US dollars, with 61 main crops relying on the pollination of honeybees. Hence, beekeeping practices also strengthen the backbone of agriculture as well.
Beekeeping is an important alternative source of livelihood for many farmers. Compared with other agriculture practices, it is a low-cost venture with the potential to have a tremendous livelihood. Bee farming is relatively cheap to manage, as the man only does the harvesting, while the production is undertaken by the bees themselves. It is an important business in the context of establishing and developing empowered and self-reliant rural communities. Saddening that beekeeping practices in Pakistan are badly affected by lack of education, gender bias, absconding, swarming, and lack of modern apicultural equipment and techniques. The apiculture industry is extremely fragmented and difficult to quantify accurately the actual production growth level. The lack of skilled manpower, well-mannered training institutions, new inventing practices, and poor post-harvesting handlings greatly hamper this industry. Similarly, there is an absence of coordination among researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers. The absence of market linkage between producers, retailers, and consumers also negatively affect the quality of honey. The shortage of recorded and up-to-date information to address the problems is the main constraint of the beekeeping industry in Pakistan. To flourish this business, it is an urgent need of time that beekeepers, researchers, and other stakeholders in the apiculture sector to make a chain of networks and associations. Proper government policies should be made to register beekeeping practices in Pakistan. Public sector universities should promote modern beekeeping practices by arranging technical workshops for local beekeepers. All these changes will update the dynamics of beekeeping practices in Pakistan and make it a profitable business.
The author is an Assistant Professor at the Lahore College for Women University, Lahore and has extensive research on apicultural aspects. She can be reached at mahnoorentomology@gmail.com.
