Under the mango tree

Since March 2009, UTMT (Under the mango tree) has grown from just sourcing honey to providing beekeeping training, capacity-building and ensuring market access to nearly 3000 farmers across 6 states over the country impacting more than 15,000 rural lives including farmer’ families. Some of these activities have involved:

• Training 1,432 farmers in beekeeping including women, thereby increasing their income by Rs 10,000 -12,000/ annually.

• Providing 1,500 small beekeepers direct market access for their sustainably harvested honey and increasing their annual income by 25%. 

• Creating 55 Master Trainers to provide support to scale up the BPR model at farm level and by Rs 12,000 per annum. 

• Bringing to the market 8 Metric Tonnes of honey and 5 Metric Tonnes of beeswax. 

Impact of Beekeeping on Agricultural Productivity:

Results from a UTMT short-term research study on the impact of indigenous beekeeping with the Apis cerana indica on agricultural productivity, show that of 16 locally important plants studied showed increased productivity with the highest being Capsicum (Bell Pepper) at 227% and ridge gourd at 27% as compared to farms with no bee boxes.