Honey production and processing: Strategies for implementation

Abstract

India has a large potential of honey production and processing since, the flora of India is one of the richest in the world due to wide variety of climate, topology, and habitation throughout the country. India is having widespread species of flowering plants, estimated to be over 18,000. Many wild and cultivated plant species are a good source of nectar and pollens; also there are four species of true honey bees present in India viz. Apis dorsata, Apis mellifera, , Apis cerana and Apis florea. The honey production in India during the year 2018-19 was estimated as 1,15,000 metric tonnes, as compared to 80,500 metric tonnes during 2014-15 (India Agristat, 2019). Besides the huge production of honey, beekeeping farmer’s community in our country faces a lot of difficulties while getting revenues/income due to inadequate post-production management technologies/facilities available for raw honey. Therefore, beekeepers have to sell the raw honey at lower prices to the traders. The present document is compiled with distinctive objective that beekeepers may also become a honey processor and may earn more, and to illustrate the opportunities and scope of employment and increased income generation resources with honey production and processing in its production area. This technical bulletin is prepared under the project entitled “Processing and Value Addition of Agricultural Produce for Enhancing Farmers Income and Employment in Production Catchment”, Farmer FIRST Program (FFP), ICAR-CIPHET, Ludhiana. All the possible know-how of honey production and its scientific processing protocols are described in this document precisely. This bulletin covers technical details about beekeeping, honey production, post-production management of raw honey, quality aspects of honey, financial details for setting-up beekeeping and honey processing unit, procedures followed for getting AGMARK and FSSAI certifications, details about training facilities available and particulars for machinery suppliers/manufacturers.