Objectives:

• To increase productivity of crops in the State by providing honey bees to the farmers for pollination.
• To maintain ecological balance in nature by way of domestication of honey bee species.
• To maintain small apiaries for demonstration, pollination, extraction and popularisation of honey and other by-product of beekeeping.
• To encourage farmers’ participation in scientific beekeeping.
• To provide technical know-how to the farmers of the State and organisation of short duration training courses in beekeeping.
• Motivation of unemployed youth to adopt beekeeping as source of their livelihood.

The modern beekeeping in Himachal Pradesh was introduced only in the year 1934 in Kullu valley and in 1936 in Kangra valley. Only Apis cerana indica the Indian honeybee was reared in the State until the year 1961 when Apis mellifera from Italy was introduced in the State at Bee Research Station, Nagrota in Kangra. Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping in fruit industry the scheme was transferred from Agriculture to Horticulture department at time of bifurcation of the Agriculture department during 1971.

Prior to April, 1971 there were only 1250 bee colonies managed in modern bee hives in whole of Himachal Pradesh. After the scheme was transferred to the Horticulture department in the year 1971, the progress in the field of beekeeping has increased manifolds.

In view of the importance of honey bees in the successful pollination of fruit plants and the production of valuable honey and the bees wax, the department of Horticulture H.P. is taking up this scheme on priority basis and is making head way progress. At present the department has 32 beekeeping demonstration apiaries at various suitable places in the state. The whole state is divided into two zones i.e. North and South zone. South zone has 17 demonstration apiaries whereas North zone has 15 demonstration apiaries. Prior to 1983-84 Apis cerana indica bee colonies were being maintained at all the beekeeping stations in South zone and Apis mellifera was only restricted to North zone. After1983-84 when the Apis cerana indica bee colonies were almost wiped out by the epidemic caused by Thai sac brood virus and presently, over 90% of the bee colonies owned by the department and almost all the bee colonies managed by the private beekeepers now belong to the Apis mellifera species except the bee colonies kept in wall hives. The bee colonies are migrated to the other states by the beekeepers particularly during winters due to scarcity of bee flora to the colonies at that time in the State.

As a matter of fact Apis mellifera performance in Himachal Pradesh has been so encouraging that at present nearly 1500 unemployed educated youths have taken to Apis mellifera beekeeping as full time profession and are maintaining nearly 80000 bee colonies as against 4200 bee colonies in the year 1981-82. These bee colonies are capable of producing about 1600 M.T. of honey annually as against 3 M.T. during 1981-82.

Importance of honey bees in pollination of fruits plants needs no emphases. It is an established fact that the value of increased fruit harvests as a result of honey bee pollination is 14 to 20 times more than the value of honey obtained directly from the bee colonies. The department helps the farmers by arranging bee colonies for pollination to the orchardists at nominal rent. According to the modest estimates about 2,00,000 bee colonies are needed for appropriate pollination for the bearing orchards in the state.

State Plan:

• Seven Days Training: in beekeeping is provided by the department every year and a stipend of Rs. 50.75 per day is provided to the trainees.
• Bee keeping equipments/material is provided to the farmers with a subsidy support of 25%, 33% and50% to the marginal, small and SC/ST category.
• Pollination service.The department of horticulture helps the farmers by providing honey bees for pollination at nominal rent at the time of flowering.
• Demonstration and technical know how.Government beekeeping stations (now migratory) are functioning in every district and these stations are serving as a demonstration apiaries and provide training and technical know how to the farmers. The detail of the govt. bee keeping stations in the State is as under.

Centrally Sponsored Schemes

Presently, two centrally sponsored schemes are being operated by the department for the Development of Beekeeping as per details given below.