Uttarakhand is a land endowed with rich flora and fauna, much of it owe to The Himalayas sprawling to its length and breadth. There are varieties of medicinal plants used as a panacea since time immemorial to treat a number of chronic ailments. Honey is one such natural produce that has long been used owing to its medicinal properties. The mention of the same dates back to the Vedas period and in Koran as well. The Villagers Foundation has launched “Project Madhu” , aimed at culturing Honey using scientific practices and integrated management aligned with research, consequently strengthening the livelihood of the farmers residing in The Himalayas. It is high time we upgraded the traditional ways of rearing honey as it not only scales the production but also tackles the pest outburst in a scientific way, thus making the process more feasible. Besides generating a supplementary income to the farmers, Project Madhu stresses upon the need to curb the migration, which in recent years has been alarming, among the masses especially youth by encouraging them to take up the Bee Keeping practices. Among the many benefits of Bee Keeping are increase in the agricultural yield as a result of pollination and useful products like Beeswax, Royal Jelly, Propolis, Bee Venom, – all collected and used by people for various nutritional and medicinal purposes. Project Madhu focuses on mapping out regions across The Himalayas conducive to Bee Culture, with an emphasis on integrated training programmes with the farmers under the aegis of experts on varying subjects encompassing it.
Teeing off the project, the team, in its initial phase, organised an interactive session with farmers of Birthi Village – a hamlet perched in the lap of nature – and discussed ins and outs of what the project is all about.