Honeybee farmer Azad Mia is a household name in Islam union of Kamalganj upazila in Moulvibazar. Thanks to him, apiculture has revolutionised the union encouraging at least eighty families to take up honeybee farming as a livelihood.
It all began when Azad Mia, at the age of 18, started collecting honey from forests as a hobby. The young, restless heart of Azad Mia used to spend time in the forests looking for flowers, bees and closely observing the buzzing beehives.
Without any training, he soon learnt how to hunt for honey by not harming the bees and the hive. He used the ancient method of honey collection by creating smoke. Sometimes, he succeeded in collecting honey but most often he returned empty handed. Whatever honey he would collect, he would sell them at a good price in the market. Soon, Azad Mia came to be known as the honey collector in the union.
However, it was not until 1998 that he took the hobby as a profession as he found an effective and better way of collecting honey. He accidentally caught a queen bee and was amazed to see how other bees were following her. He brought the queen bee home and put her in a box. Soon a hive was formed in that box and only in four months, he was able to collect eight kg of honey from there.
This has encouraged him to catch more queen bees, make more boxes and begin honeybee farming. In 2000, the number of boxes rose to 17 and he was able to sell honey worth Tk2.5 lakh.
According to Azad Mia, honeybee farming was the easiest way of earning money. Only one time investment is needed and a single box can yield more profit than rice production in a five bigha land in a year. Moreover, it is not only the honey that is in demand. Azad Mia has also been selling boxes with queen bee for Tk6,000 each.
With the profit from honeybee farming, Azad Mia was able to buy land, upgrade his house, look after a family of 9 and marry off two of his daughters quite comfortably.
Seeing such drastic development of Azad Mia, many families in the union started to follow his footstep. There are now at least 250 boxes in the villages of Islampur and Adampur union. Each box produces about five to 25 kg of honey and each kg is sold from Tk600 to Tk800. Since honeybee farming requires less investment and almost no effort – once the box is set up, rest of the crucial work is done by the bees – many people have taken it up as the only profession.
Furkan Mia of Maddhyabhag village said Azad Mia was a role model for many of them. “He inspired and taught us to start honeybee farming,” said Furkan. The same sentiment was resonated by Altaf Mahmud, a primary school teacher and also a honeybee farmer. He said their union had become a hub for many wholesale businessmen coming from other parts of the district.
Apart from the financial profit, apiculture has significant contribution to the ecology. Foraging of bee for nectar and pollen leads to cross-pollination of crop plants. Bees also protect crops and fruits from pests. The villagers said since the honeybee farming began, production of seasonal fruits and crops had also gone up.
To foster unity and exchange knowledge, honeybee farmers of the Islampur and Adampur unions have recently formed an association. Azad Mia is the general secretary of this association, while Altaf Mahmud is the president. They said the association was a big step forward in institutionalising the honeybee farming in the unions.
Mohd Zahidul Islam Mia, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Kamalganj said: “There was conference in August with the honeybee farmers and small entrepreneurs of Kamalganj upazila.”