Over the years several private service providers, NGOs, Projects, Government agencies and departments have been carrying out training of farmers in beekeeping in their own ways without uniformity. In other words there have been many different training manuals/guides being used by the different stakeholders in the apiculture industry, some of which are sub-standard. This practice has for long undermined efforts to enforce compliance to code of practice, standard operating procedures and quality standards in apiculture industry, hence the need for harmonization and uniformity.

The World Bank and the Government of India through the Farm Income Enhancement and Forest Conservation under Apiculture Promotion sub-component embarked on a series of interventions which include among others, standardization of the national training document. The project therefore provided funds to develop a national beekeeping training and extension manual as a strategy to promote compliance to standards in beekeeping industry in India.

The manual is categorized into four (4) broad chapters, namely: 1. About the Honeybee and its significance; 2.Beekeeping equipments; 3. Management of the Honeybee, and 4. Hive Products and processing.

This Laboratory manual on beekeeping has been developed to streamline and harmonize the beekeeping training and extension for the stakeholders involved in the Industry. It will later be translated into major languages of India in order to promote its usage and adoption.

(Nishant Ghode)