Honey farming makes many people self-reliant in Sylhet, Narsingdi

Sylhet Correspondent :
Honey cultivation on mustard fields in the Gowainghat Upazila in the Sylhet district has gained popularity recently.
Meanwhile, it has made many people, especially a good number of unemployed youths self-reliant through cultivating honey.
Witnessing continuous success of others, more farmers of the Upazila are being engaged in honey cultivation on the aisles of mustard fields which added a new dimension to the agriculture. Now the famers here are passing very busy time in setting up honeycomb boxes beside mustard fields at different areas in the district.
According to Gowainghat Upazila Agriculture office, many farmers have started box system bee cultivation and honey collection in different areas of the upazila here. Applying scientific box system bee cultivation, around 50,000 to 60,000 bees make honey in a box where one bee is female. There have 5 to 10 bee frames in the box. Those frames are called beehive, sources added.
Gowainghat Upazila Agriculture Extension Officer M Anisuzzaman said this. For its continuity they take primary project in the log land of Baon Haor in Muslimnagor. By this they start honey cultivation in the mustard field. General former are very interested The produce honey visa a visa mustard in the same field. By this they make prelist and extra income.
9 PM club member of Muslimnagor said, after Aman cultivation they use this land to produce mustard At the same field they cultivate bee.
M Anisuzzaman informed if the former give proper training it make a new horizon in agri economy. He said, bee help to the growth of mustard. It take positive result. Farmers are refitted economically.
Bee cultivator Naimul Hque said, he receive training from BSIC about bee-cultivation. He set 56 bee-box in Jaflong and collect 2/3 Kgs honey every week trice. Price of per kg honey is Tk 800-100 By small capital extra money is earned by cultivating bee in mustard field,
Local MP Emran Ahmed well come this project. He hope for further development of agri management of Gowainghat by this project. He assure about his co-operation to the former.
Narsingdi Correspondent adds: Many of the rural men and women specially self-committed persons are becoming active towards attaining their social dignity after being engaged in various income generating activities independently. Nurzzaman Gaji a Islamic scalar and self committed person of Jinerdee union under Polash upazila of Narsingdi district become a successful small- entrepreneur through Honey farming.
When contacted with Nuruzzaman Gaji, he said when he was receiving Imam training from Islamic Foundation, Narsingdi in the year1998, he then inspired on honey farming from his lesson and later he had started his honey farming business from local bees with 8 boxes. He said after taking training from local BSCIC office on Honey bee farming in 2012, he then started his honey farming business on large scale with 28 boxes by taking loan of Taka 2,00000 from Islamic Bank.  
He said when some cash crops specially mustard, litchi, donia, kalijira and pumpkin become flooded with flowers, he then starts his professional works along with his appointed workers in different districts using 60 boxes He said, honey farming works begins from December 1st week and continuing up to June. He said yearly he collected about 500 kilograms of honey from different flowers when flooded. He said after preprocessing the collected honey in his local processing plant and then he started marketing He expressed his satisfaction that his yearly net income from honey business about taka three lakh.
Additional Director (Administration and finance) Department of Agriculture Extension, Khamar Bari Dhaka, Mohammad Abdul Aziz and Deputy Director Narsingdi Latafat Hossain recently visited the local honey processing plant of Nurzzaman Gaji and expressed satisfaction. Additional Director Abdul Aziz said proper attention and technological support can make the honey production a huge profitable business for the country. He said many unemployed people can be involved in honey farming and the marketing process of honey, which will ultimately help reduce poverty apart from giving a boost in the country’s export earnings. He also said if the government takes proper steps, honey production will get a boost in the country, ushering in a new opportunity for export.