Mahatma Gandhi Seva Ashram (MGSA) is one of the founding partners of Ekta Parishad, working in several areas of the Chambal region. The Chambal Honey collection and production programme was started 5 years ago when it was observed that local honey hunters were being exploited by the middlemen, to whom they sold their honey. However, the programme increased significantly in scale when funding and training were provided by the UNDP and KVIC.
There are now two sources of honey in the region; honey hunters and bee-keepers. Honey hunters are local men who collect wild honey from the forests at night. Although this is a traditional, local skill, most of the honey hunters used a destructive and dangerous collection process. Through MGSA’s interventions over 200 local honey-hunters have been trained in non-destructive honey collection and have also been issued with protective suits and honey collection equipment. MGSA bought 4000 kg of wild honey from honey-hunters last year, a mere fraction of the total honey collection in the Chambal region.
MGSA has also started sourcing honey from bee-keepers. This provides more volume and also different honey types. They sourced 2000 kg of honey from boxes. This provides some further employment for bee-keepers. A single box yields 2-3 kg honey over a 10-day period. Boxes can only be used during the flowering season, which lasts about 8 months. By placing boxes in fields containing different varieties of flower, different flavours of honey are produced e.g. mustard honey.
There is a honey-processing unit at MGSA. The production process is carefully controlled, so that the honey produced is of an exceptionally high quality. In 2004 MGSA received the Agmark (Indian government accreditation), which certifies the high quality and production processes used.
The honey is sold through retail and wholesale channels. Last year MGSA sold Rs 5.5 lakh of honey. The majority of sales are currently via the wholesale channel, as Chambal Honey is a relatively new entrant into the retail market. However there is significant potential to grow sales through both channels.
MGSA has been successful in providing a mix of full and part-time employment to 250 honey-hunters. Honey-hunters have been trained in non-destructive collection techniques, ensuring that their livelihood will be sustainable in the long-term, and have also been provided with safety equipment.
Some of the honey-hunters have organized a self-help group, putting 10% of their wages into a fund that MGSA matches. Given the seasonal and very physical nature of this work it is important to try and encourage these schemes.
There are a number of ways in which employment could be increased:
(i) The network of honey hunters could be expanded
(ii) Honey by-products (such as pollen) could be processed and marketed
(iii) A network of local honey salespeople could be built up
There is significant potential to increase the network of local honey hunters since MGSA only purchases a fraction of the honey collected in the Chambal region. Additional finance would be required to train and equip new, young honey-hunters. MGSA would need to find a low-cost source of working capital, as working capital requirements would increase significantly if the honey hunter network increased. Also, MGSA would need to invest some money in improving its marketing network.
If MGSA started collecting and processing pollen, additional honey hunters would be required. Employment would be generated (probably for women) to clean the pollen traps. This venture also requires investment in training and working capital, as well as a small investment in fixed capital equipment required to store and process pollen.
There is good retail market
potential for Chambal honey in the
There are many potential young salespeople in the rural communities that Ekta Parishad works with. Due to their disadvantaged status, they have not had the opportunity to learn and develop these skills. If a network of young people can be identified and trained by Ekta Parishad, the potential to build up a strong and socially aware sales network for Chambal honey and other village products will increase exponentially.