January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: Pakistan has attained self-sufficiency in honey production and has started exports to earn foreign exchange. Honey, produced in Pakistan, is of prime quality and can be sold at a good price in the free global market.

The bee-keeping has become a source of income for 240,000 colonies of honeybee keepers in all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir.

The bee-keeping profession can easily be adopted as an income generating activity, especially by the women folk, as it does not require big investments or infrastructure.

According to official sources here, an increase in average yield of honey per colony has been registered from 4 kg to 21 kg, while the increase in total production of honey in the country has increased from 250 tons to 2500 tons since 1982.

The best time for bee-keeping is from October to November and the spring season. However, honey can be produced throughout the year by planting some special species of plants.

The bee-keepers encourage bees to get their food from natural sources like flowers and plants instead of using sugar in rainy or cold season.

The development of new bee management techniques, production and distribution of genetically superior honeybee queens are vital to achieve significant progress.

The Honeybee research institute provides training to the people in bee-keeping through different courses to educate the people not to squeeze the unripe beehives and extract honey mixed with parts of bees which could be hazardous for human consumption.

“We are striving for the promotion of use of honeybees for pollination of vegetables, seeds, fodder and fruit crops for higher yield and development of a low cost comb foundation locally to replace costly and imported metal sheets by the farmers,” a concerned official said.

Besides, establishment of a processing unit is essential for demonstration and training in collaboration with provincial research and extension department by providing for training of the bee-keepers.

In Europe bees were first introduced some 20 years ago and after consistent efforts it has more than 150,000 colonies being managed by 11,000 bee-keepers.

Honey is a high energy food which cures many ailments and benefits the human body in various ways as it contains anti-biotic substances.—APP