May 11, 2021
Dabur India launched “Project Madhu”, this is a mission to promote beekeeping or Apiculture as a profitable trade for farmers and small and medium entrepreneurs.
In this project Dabur is working with local Non Profit Organizations across three states to create an ecosystem that will bring together technical experience, funding, and access to the marketplace for these farmers and entrepreneurs to train and sustain them in the vocation of bee keeping.
Project Madhu is being brought to life by the Bio-Resource Development team at Dabur India.
It is assessed that through the right involvements, India can definitely enhance its honey production capacity from the current 3.4 Million Bee Colonies – 1.20 Lakh Mt to 200 Million Bee Colonies – 70 Lakh Mt.
Dabur targets at providing as many as 5600 bee-boxes to farmers which are expected to positively impact the socio-economic situation of 350 families in the states of Jharkhand and Assam. Apart from this, in Bihar, 2250 families being benefitted through World Bank Aided Jeevika Project which attained 23500 box distribution. Along with the bee-boxes, technical knowledge would also be provided through training by Dabur India’s Bio-Resource Development team at the village, block, and district levels. The team plans to provide 360 series of training by 2025.
Dabur India has collaborated with leading Indian NGOs like Jeevika BRLPS (Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society) in Bihar, Vikas Bharti in Jharkhand, and Institute of Integrated Resource Management (IIRM) in Assam and conducted dialogues with more than 350 beekeepers in these 3 states. The company would continue to associate with similar NGOs to continue to reach out to the bee-keepers across Indian states at the grass-root level and raise momentum for this campaign. Through the campaign, Dabur would give a fillip to indigenous produce and its marketing to strengthen the agricultural economy.
“Project Madhu has been conceptualized to give momentum to Dabur’s ambition of making the bee-keeper community in India more self-reliant, self-sustaining, and more scientific in its approach. We have been working in this direction for several years. However, with Project Madhu, we want to fortify our efforts and reach out to a wider audience across the country. The idea for us is to collaborate with the government and private stakeholders and bring to life, a ‘honey corridor’ across the select states, which would look at contributing positively to the welfare of the farmers and the nation at large, explained Prashant Agarwal, Marketing Head- Health Supplements, Dabur India Ltd.
Beekeeping is great for small scale farmers across the country and helps them earn additional income. It has the potential to provide employment, income and economic security for their family and others in rural areas.
“At Dabur, we are committed to making requisite skills available to the targeted communities and provide them assistance to create a sustainable source of income in the long term said Agarwal.