Shades of yellow greet the eyes amidst the misty fields of Araku Valley nestled within the Japanese Ghats close to Visakhapatnam. November is the season for niger flowers blooming within the area, and can be when beekeepers get busy. In a area lined with blue packing containers on the Chaparai waterfalls route, V Naga Koteswara Rao rigorously pulls out every body from the field with a gradual hand in order to not disturb the colony of bees in it. It has over a lakh of employee bees, a single queen bee and some tons of of drone bees in every field.

“I examine the beehives as soon as per week. To be a profitable beekeeper, one has to grasp the dynamics of the ecosystem that helps bees, the geographic location, varieties of honey bee, and obtainable sources,” says Koteswara, who was one of many first beekeepers of the area. He began his enterprise Mohan Honey Bees Industries greater than 15 years in the past and now has expanded to eight beekeeping items with a complete of two,500 beekeeping packing containers at totally different locations in Araku.

Honey bees are essential to the dynamic ecosystem, however their numbers are on a decline on account of lack of habitat and extreme use of pesticides. At a time when honeybee habitats are below menace, the beekeepers in Araku Valley are main a candy revolution.

For over a decade now, Araku and the neighbouring Japanese Ghats have supported an ecosystem of sustainable earnings and employment for the beekeepers. When it began just a few years in the past, there have been only a handful of beekeepers. As we speak, the area is prospering with over 100 beekeepers who produce honey on a small in addition to huge scale. The undulating panorama with fields of niger flowers and different organically-grown agricultural produce helps the enterprises in an enormous manner.

V Naga Koteswara Rao pulling out a body from a beekeeping field at his unit on the Chaparai route in Araku close to Visakhapatnam. November is the season when beekeeping picks up within the area.
| Picture Credit score: KR Deepak

In the course of the peak season, honey is harvested in 10 days and bought on to vacationers who go to the valley. The bottles go to shops in different cities too. “One field offers us 4 to 5 kilograms of honey on this season,” says Sravana Jyothi, who has been within the enterprise for 12 years. She spent a substantial time watching her father work at his items and are available out with profitable produce each season.

V Naga Koteswara Rao pulling out a body from a beekeeping field at his unit on the Chaparai route in Araku close to Visakhapatnam.
| Picture Credit score: KR Deepak

“I discover your complete course of fascinating. It is very important perceive that we share a symbiotic relationship with bees who’re the principle pollinators of the area. They work actually laborious, touring 4 to 5 kilometres within the neighbouring fields, visiting lakhs of flowers,” she says. Jyothi learnt the methods to profitable beekeeping from her father who gathered the information at Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Guntur. “Preserving in thoughts some components like altering the frames within the honey packing containers each two years is necessary,” she says.

Bees inside a beekeeping field at a unit in Araku close to Visakhapatnam. November is the season when beekeeping picks up within the area.
| Picture Credit score: KR Deepak

The honey is produced in over 40 flavours that embrace jamun, mango, niger seeds, eucalyptus, neem and sunflower. It’s bought proper after it’s taken from the packing containers.

Rows of beekeeping packing containers at Chaparai route close to Araku in Visakhapatnam. November is the season when beekeeping picks up within the area.
| Picture Credit score: KR Deepak

Whereas the beekeepers suffered a setback through the preliminary two years of the pandemic, they’re again with vigour this 12 months. “Though the produce was good again then, advertising and marketing and transportation was a difficulty,” says Sravana.

A person extracts honey from the frames at a beekeeping area at Chaparai route in Araku close to Visakhapatnam.
| Picture Credit score: KR Deepak

In the course of the two years, the beekeepers experimented with by-products of honey to deliver out merchandise like beeswax cream and infusing honey with ginger, garlic, beetroot and carrot.

In response to A Ok Goud, one other beekeeper, beekeeping enterprises within the Japanese Ghats have been profitable for farmers in some ways. “The bees reside in extremely organised communities, and assist farmers in pollination and hold the ecological stability,” he says. Beekeeping has additionally lured children exploring it as a occupation. Nonetheless, he provides that the federal government should unfold consciousness amongst farmers on the advantages of beekeeping and practising natural farming.