|
|
|
| October 02, 2006 | Monday | Ramazan 8, 1427 |
Bee keeping in NWFP facing crisis
PESHAWAR, Oct 1: Haji Wahid, a 54-year-old beekeeper was leading a happy life to feed his family but two-thirds of his bee colonies were destroyed in the Oct 8 earthquake last year.
A native of Bajaur Agency is running honey business with the assistance of 50 members of his family at Tarnab, a hub of honey trade in the NWFP. “I travel with the bees across the country to provide them pollen and nectar.” Starting honey business in 1992, Wahid said he visited Punjab and Azad Kashmir due to scarcity of bee-flora plants and flowers in NWFP after the end of spring season. “The large-scale cutting of calocacia (palosa), berry, shisham, sunflower, peaches and citrus trees in NWFP has affected beekeeping,” he added.
Another beekeeper, Hameed Khan, said thousands of his bees were killed during a termite attack in Karak. He said his bees could have been saved had he got anti-termite medicines in early stages. The medicines useful for bee treatment are being imported from China, Australia and Germany, which are not only expensive but are often not available in remote areas of the province, Khan complained.
He said there was an ever increasing demand for Pakistan’s berry and palosa honey in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, UAE, Qatar and other Middle Eastern Countries besides Europe, due to its fine quality. He urged the government to fix honey prices help thousands of beekeepers in their business.
Raza Shah, president of the Pak Beekeepers Association (PBA) said there were about 6,000 honey farms in NWFP with almost 60,000 beekeepers. He said the government should impose a ban on the cutting of berry and palosa trees to save bess from extinction. He said to help the beekeepers they should be provided interest-free loans through Islamic banking.
Haji Rafique Najeeb, a leading honey exporter in Tarnab said: “Demand for Pakistani honey has been on the rise in Gulf states especially Saudi Arabia due to its good quality and only 17 per cent of sugar content”. He said the average yield of honey per colony had increased from four kg to 21 kg while the total production in the country had increased from 250 tons to 2500 tons for the last two decades.
He said increase in production has brought down the prices of honey in the local market. “I have been selling berry’s honey for Rs 180,000 a ton in 2005 against Rs 160,000 in 2006,” Rafique said, adding the local beekeepers need to have technical know-how and training to improve the quality of honey and increase their annual income.
He alleged that some officials of the food department demanded illegal gratification from the exporters and on refusal declared their products injurious to human health.
“The food department’s inspectors take 20 samples from the honey market every month to examine its quality,” Dr Bilal, Deputy District Health Officer (DDHO) Peshawar said. The samples are divided into three parts all sealed. One is handed over to the owner, one to the health department official while the third is sent to the laboratory for test, he added. “We lodge an FIR against the owner once his product is declared injurious to health,” the official said. The allegations of corruption and harassment of exporters by the inspectors are baseless, he added.
“The population of the local bee Apis Florae (small bee) is gradually vanishing from the country due the consistent loss of bee flora plants, flowers and scrub forest,” Anisur Rehman, Assistant Entomologist, Agriculture Research Institute (ARI), Tarnab said.
He said if urgent measures are not taken for its conservation and protection there is every possibility of loosing an average five to ten KG out of one thousand KG honey.—APP
|
|
|
|
