From Rs17,000 salary to Rs17 lakh annual turnover, how beekeeping changed the fortunes of this Odisha man

Bijay Kumar Bir spent four years working in the maintenance division of National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) in Angul, Odisha, at a monthly salary of Rs 17,000. While inflation continuously increased his bills, his salary remained fixed. 

Left with no option to make ends meet, he decided to start beekeeping or apiculture, a skill he had learnt from his maternal uncle Suresh Chand out of curiosity when he was a student of class nine. 

Bijay quit his job and now earns Rs17 lakh annually. While he earns Rs12 lakh from selling honey at Rs500 per kg, he generates over Rs3 lakh by selling around 300 honeycombs at Rs1,000 each. He also sells beekeeping equipment, bringing his total income to Rs17 lakh annually.

Bijay is a master trainer in beekeeping and is paid Rs5,000 per day by government institutions for offering training sessions.

Among the top honey producers in Angul district, he was felicitated by the state government in 2023 under the Mukhya Mantri Krushi Udyog Yojana.

Production and process

Bijay says each of his honeybee colonies (in a wooden bee box) yields over 13 kg of honey between November and January. “Whenever the number of colonies exceeds 350, I sell off the excess. I plan to increase the number of colonies to 500 soon,” Bijay says.

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He also sells eight types of equipment for modern apiculture, earning over Rs2 lakh annually. The equipment includes an extractor (to draw honey out of a honeycomb), smoker (to pre-empt attack of bees), face veil (to prevent bees from swarming over the face) and feeder trays (used to feed bees during the rainy season). 

“I plan to increase the total annual turnover to Rs 25 lakh in the next two years,” he says.

Bijay rears honeybees of Apis cerana indica species. “They can flourish in temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius that prevails not only in Angul but also in several districts of Odisha,” says Prof (Dr.) Pravasini Behera of the Department of Entomology of Bhubaneswar-based Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT).

Honeybees remain indoors during the rainy season which can cause their starvation death. But Bijay prevents this by preparing a feed for them. 

“I dilute honey with water, mix some sugar and feed my bees in feeder trays during rains, preventing mass apian casualties. As a result, I don’t have to begin my apiculture afresh with new colonies,” he says.

In winter and summer when bees roam about to collect honey, Bijay sets his beehives in different agricultural fields with the permission of farmers.  

He puts his bee boxes in mustard fields between October and December and Moringa fields in January and February.

Similarly, he sets his beehives in litchi fields in March-April, Karanja fields in April-May, and sesame fields in June-July. 

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This also helps farmers as bees pollinate the fields. “Almost all farmers in our area allow Bijay to set his beehives in their fields because bees are agents of pollination that help increase their crop yield,” says Anil Kumar Sahu, a mustard farmer in Bantala.

From passion to profession 

Bijay had tasted success with apiculture first in 1998 when his uncle Suresh Chand, a cashew contractor in nearby Panchapada, gifted him five honeybee colonies. He earned around Rs10,000 annually from them, using the money to finance his college and technical education.

His five colonies later increased to eight and produced nearly 7 kg of honey. He used to sell it at Rs 90 per kg back then. However, a lot of honey was wasted then because of the traditional method of beekeeping. 

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The traditional method of squeezing a honeycomb using a mosquito net drained much of the honey. It rendered honeycombs unfit for reuse.

However, using an extractor in modern apiculture to draw out honey keeps the honeycombs intact for reuse.    

“I learned new methods during training in 2004 under the Department of Entomology of Bhubaneswar-based Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. This continued in phases till 2016,” Bijay says.

By 2018, the number of honeybee colonies increased to 100, each yielding eight to 12 kg of honey.

Bijay also started working as a master trainer for the Odisha unit of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and the Rural Development and Self Employment Institute (RSETI) of the State Department of Mission Shakti in 2022. While KVIC provides him Rs 5000 per training session, RSEETI gives him an honorarium of Rs 1500 per day per training session. Till now, he has trained more than 400 honey producers of Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhat and adjoining districts.                             

“Bijay is our only master trainer in Angul and Dhenkanal district. He teaches beekeeping and entrepreneurial skills, which is helping others,” says Bhubaneswar-based KVIC’s assistant director Abhimanyu Patta.

Lending credence to Patta’s statement, honey producer Abhmanyu Dalei of Pediapathar village in Angul district feels obliged to Bijay because of the training he received from him. “After training, I started beekeeping in 2018 with 15 colonies purchased from Bijaya sir. Now. I have 95 colonies, out of which 30 yield over one quintal of honey annually. I sell it at Rs 600 per kg and a colony at Rs 1000,” he adds.

(Niroj Ranjan Misra a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports).

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