A PTG member displays a honeycomb at Jammulapalem

JAMMULAPALEM (GUNTUR): Nature's gift to mankind - honey is a pleasant food used as medicine and a sweet, nutritious food, but its production in small quantities is limited to a few tribal families. Recently these tribals as group found a new domain - Guntur district to venture into commercial production while it is not season in their native place. Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) encouraged by Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Bhadrachalam, moved out into fields in Kakumanu and Bapatla mandals providing farmers a taste of apiculture. Under a special scheme being implemented by the ITDA, about 500 blue boxes were set up amidst green fields of Cheruvu Jammulapalem and Narsaipalem for honey production.

A group led by Sutru Sattireddy from Pocharam in VR Puram mandal of Khammam district will stay put here for 40 days looking after bees in the blue boxes. Each box containing five trays of honeycomb gets filled within 30 to 40 days depending on availability of suitable flowers in the vicinity.

Buy-back arrangement

The ITDA invested in 22 groups of 10 tribals each and each one was given infrastructure spending Rs.1.12 lakh per group that helps them recover 10 kg of honey per box per month, project coordinator Chennupati Suresh Kumar told The Hindu. The ITDA has a buy-back arrangement with the PTGs and they are paid Rs.100 per kg. The entire produce is taken to Hyderabad and sold in Government outlets and offices at Rs.150 per kg., he added.

Tribals from Bhadrachalam make use of their expertise and infrastructure to earn an additional Rs.600 to Rs.1,000 from apiculture, he observed. Sattireddy, who had come to a coastal region said the yield was very good and honey here had peculiar taste. Sunflower and vamu were the other crops found in Guntur suitable for the honey production for which they chose Vinukonda. They propose to move out to Vikarabad where more varieties of medicinal plants were available.

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