Drone zone

When Rajasthan failed to meet its target of mustard cultivation this season...

When Rajasthan failed to meet its target of mustard cultivation this season, the farmers weren8217;t stung. On the contrary, this year has been sweeter than usual for them. For, bee-keepers from across the country, especially from colder climes, have parked themselves in the state8217;s mustard farms, turning miles of yellow spreads into unlikely money spinners.

As cold weather is not conducive to the growth of mustard flower, bee-keepers from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, who export mustard-based honey8212;comprising 70 per cent of the total honey exports8212;have flocked to Ganganagar, Alwar, Bharatpur, Kota, Jaipur and Bikaner, the prolific mustard-growing areas of Rajasthan.

8220;We have 20,000 boxes of bees and all are in Rajasthan,8221; says Jagjit Singh Kapoor, chairman of Kashmir Apiaries Private Limited, in Doraha, Ludhiana, a vertically integrated set-up also into bee-keeping and honey processing. 8220;The honey made from mustard flowers has crystallisation properties and is not a big hit in India, but sells very well in other countries. It8217;s rich in glucose and preferred by foreigners,8221; he explains, adding, 8220;Our company constitutes 80 per cent of the 15,000 tonnes of honey exported annually, to various destinations, including the US and Europe.8221;

Amit Dhanuka, CEO of Delhi-based Kejriwal Bee Care India Private Limited, another big player in the industry, says that besides producing honey, mustard flowers also help in breeding bees. 8220;The mustard pollen is in abundance and helps speed up the breeding process almost two-fold. This is another reason why bee-keepers from different parts converge in Rajasthan,8221; says Dhanuka.

Which is why in the past fortnight, more than 20 bee-keepers have arrived in Ganganagar from Himachal alone. In fact, if Khaleel, another bee-keeper, is to be believed, more than 300 bee-keepers from Punjab, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir are in Ganganagar alone. 8220;Kota district has bee-keepers from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,8221; he says.

8220;There are no flowers in our area these days, so I decided to come here with my 220 hives,8221; says Bhagwan Das, from Dharamshala in Himachal.

Even small bee-keepers are trying to cash in on the yellow wave. Ranjit Singh of Thakkar Sandhu village in Gurdaspur, Punjab, has come to Phoosewala village with his 45 hives. 8220;Of the 100 hives I had in Muktsar, I lost 55 due to insecticide spray on flowers. I8217;m here to make up for that loss,8221; he says.

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Adds Muzaffar Ahmad from Kashmir: 8220;These days there is no scope of extracting honey in Kashmir due to the intense cold, so I8217;m here to make honey.8221; Not to mention money for the mustard farmers in Rajasthan.

bee in the bonnet

8226; A majority of bees in India are the Italian honey bees Apis mellifera ligustica.

8226;The bees have a positioning system in their brains, which lets them travel three to five km to collect nectar and return to their specific hives. Their brains are also tuned in to solar light in a way that they suck the nectar at the most appropriate time of the day.

8226; Larvae are initially fed royal jelly produced by worker bees, and later, pollen and honey. The larva that continues to be fed royal jelly becomes a queen bee.