66 Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 11 (1), January, 2011

Training Needs of Bee Keepers in Haryana

Nasib Singh1, V.P.S.Yadav2, Vishal Raina3 and Ramesh Chand4

1. Asso.Prof., EEI, Nilokheri Karnal, Haryana, .2. Sr. DES ( Ext. Edu.), K.V.K. Faridabad., 3. Ph. D. Scholar, CCSHAU, Hisar, 4. Technical Officer, DWR, Karnal.

Corresponding author e-mail: nasibsingheei@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Honey has offered great promise to some of the most undernourished areas of the world. Bees benefit the plants notonly increasing their yield, but also improve crop quality. Since beekeeping does not compete for inputs with otherfarming processes or crop, it is an ideal programme for integration. Keeping the importance of Bee-Keeping a studywas undertaken to find out the training needs of bee-keepers. The study highlighted that majority of the respondentsbelonged to middle to young age group, medium to high level of family education, socio-economic status,innovativeness and risk bearing capacity. The results also showed that majority of respondents had low to mediumlevel of extension contact and land holding, respectively. In respect to training needs of beekeepers in differentareas, it was found highest in protection of bee pests, diseases and other hazards followed by the business of bees ,bee-hive products and their extraction, processing, and medicinal values and essential operations .

Key words: Innovativeness; Beekeepers; Training needs;

Beekeeping developed as an economic activity inmany countries during the past two-three centuries. Inthe United States of America, Europe and otherdeveloped countries in North America valuablecontributions to the art and science of beekeeping hadbeen made by beekeepers and agricultural scientists tomake beekeeping an important component of agriculture.With the invention of the movable frame hive in 1851by Fr.L.L.Langstroth in the USA, beekeepingestablished itself in several countries as a commercialenterprise, which, besides providing valuable nutritiveand medicinal items of importance to making, benefitedagricultural and horticultural development in thesecountries.Modern beekeeping in India can however betraced to the beginning of nineteenth century. Afterindependence, village industries boards were establishedat state level to promote cottage industries includingbeekeeping for coordination between the state boards.In 1980, need was felt by the ICAR for multi-locationalresearch and All India-Co-ordinated Project on HoneyBee Research and Training (AICRP) was started.Thespecies of true honeybees viz., A. cerana, A.dorsata ,A. florea are indigenous to India and A. mellifera (exotic

species) is now established in the country and servingthe commercial beekeeping in many states.Beekeepingis appropriate technology because it is very low scaleand requires little money to begin with. Bees andbeekeeping also contribute to the uplift of rural massesby way of employment generation and as a subsidiaryoccupation to supplement their income. The rural youthin the country is facing critical problem ofunemployment. More than 26per cent of the totalpopulation of the country is living below the povertyline. Therefore, efforts must be made to raise theeconomic and social status of the weaker sections ofthe rural societies, who are below the subsistence level.Apiculture has great potential for self-help of the ruralpeople of the country. It provides the employment, newsources of income generation, food and nutritionalsecurity and improves rural economy.The mostimportant factors in the development of the beekeepingindustry are considered to be climatic conditions, training,extension, and research, improved methods ofmanagement, queen rearing, pest and disease control,improved honey harvesting, processing, and control useof pesticides. In this modern age, training of beekeeping

Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 11 (1), January, 2011 67

is considered as one of the most important non-monetaryinputs in all the aspects of development programmes.This fact applies to agriculture sector too. Theimportance of training in beekeeping practices as anindispensable instrument for rapid transfer of scientificbeekeeping technology and a way to modernize thetraditional beekeeping and the economic condition ofbeekeepers. Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping, the present study were undertaken to identifythe training needs of beekeepers.

METHODOLOGYThis study was conducted in Haryana state

comprising 20 districts. The majority of respondentswere involved in Bee-Keeping in the districts of Karnal,Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala and Panchkula.Therefore, the sample for the study was selected fromthe Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar districts usingpurposive sampling technique because these two disrictscovered maximum number of beekeepers. A district-wise list of beekeepers was prepared and from the listso prepared, sixty respondents from each district wereselected randomly. Thus, in turn, one hundred and twentyrespondents constituted the sample for the study. Thedata were collected with the personal interviewtechnique and suitable statistical techniques were usedfor analysis of collected data.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Profile of the beekeepers : The distribution ofrespondents based on their socio-economic and socio-psychological traits have been presented in Table 1 anddiscussed as follows:Age : Data in Table 1 revealed that 50 per cent of therespondents belonged to middle age group(36-50 years)followed by young age group(21-35 years) to the extentof 30 per cent. The remaining 20 per cent ofrespondents belonged to old age group. The data showsthat majority of the respondent (80 %) were young tomiddle age group which made this venture successful.Family education : The data in Table 1 revealed thatmost of the respondents fall into low to medium familyeducation i.e. 38 per cent belonged to low level offamily education and 42. per cent belonged to mediumlevel of family education. The remaining 20 per centbelonged to high level of family education. It reveals

that constant efforts were required to be made topromote family education in the rural areas.Land holding : The study revealed that 41 per cent ofrespondents possessed small land holding and 27 percent had medium size land holding followed by 20 percent were landless. The remaining 12 percent ofrespondents possessed large land holding. It shows thatmajority of respondents (68%) were having small andmedium land holding. It implies that this venture isadoptable for small landholding respondents.Socio-economic status : Socio-economic analysis ofthe data indicated that 43 percent of respondentsbelonged to medium level of socio-economic statusfollowed by 37 per cent from low level of socio-economicstatus. The remaining 20 per cent of respondentsbelonged to high level of socio-economic status. Itestablishes that respondents with medium level of socioeconomic status were comparatively higher than theother categories.

Table 1. Profile of beekeepers ( N= 120)

S. PersonalityCategory

ScoreNo. %No. traits range

1. Age Young 21 – 35 yrs 36 30.00Middle 36 – 50 yrs 60 50.00Old 51 – 65 yrs 24 20.00

2. Family Low 0 – 11 45 38.00education Medium 12 – 24 51 42.00

High 25 – 36 24 20.003. Land Landless - 24 20.00

holding Small <2 acre 49 41.00Medium 3– 7 acre 33 27.00Large >7 acre 14 12.00

4. SE Status Low 10 – 19 44 37.00Medium 20 – 28 51 43.00High 29 – 37 25 20.00

5. Mass media Low 0 – 6 42 35.00exposure Medium 7 – 12 49 41.00

High 13 – 18 29 24.006. Risk bearing Low 6 – 13 40 33.00

capacity Medium 14 – 22 51 43.00High 23 – 30 29 24.00

7. Extension Low 0 – 16 51 43.00contact Medium 17 – 32 48 40.00

High 33 – 48 21 17.008. Innovat- Low 6 – 7 35 29.00

iveness Medium 8 – 10 58 48.00High 11 – 12 27 23.00

68 Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 11 (1), January, 2011

Mass media exposure : Data revealed that 41 per centof the respondents had medium level of exposure tomass media and 35 per cent had low level. Theremaining 24 per cent of respondents had high level ofmass media exposure. It shows that respondents hadgood exposure to the different mass media and thus,they can adopt this profession successfully.Risk bearing capacity : It was observed that 43 percent of respondents had medium level of risk bearingcapacity and 33 per cent had low level. The remaining24 per cent of respondents had high level of risk bearingcapacity. This predicts that a majority of respondents(67%) have medium to high level of risk bearingcapacity. Therefore, there is more scope to launch newbeekeeping development programmes amongbeekeepers.Extension contact : The data presented in Table 1revealed that 43 per cent had low level of extensioncontact and 40 percent had medium level. The remaining17 per cent of respondents had high level of extensioncontact. It reveals that majority of respondents (83%)have low to medium level of extension contact. Thisimplies that there is a greater need for beekeepers tocontact extension officials / beekeeping experts.Innovativeness : It was found that 48 per cent of

respondents had medium level of innovativeness and29 per cent had low level. Only 23 per cent of therespondents had high level of innovativeness. It predictsthat a significant majority of respondent (71%) havemedium to high level of innovativeness. This implies thatbeekeepers with more innovative outlook have acapacity of taking the risk in opting the latest beekeepingtechnology if available to them.Training needs of beekeepers : Training is the criticalinput for human resource development. It plays animportant role in initiating and accelerating humanbehaviour. Training being a tool for making interventionsat the level of human resource is increasingly becomingcrucial for development in almost all fields with growingsatisfaction in technology. In order to make any trainingmore meaningful and contributing, it is imperative onthe part of organizer, to identify the training needs ofthe trainees. The training needs of beekeepers wereidentified on the basis of training needs percentage withrespect to scientific beekeeping practices. The mainidea behind training is to develop adequate workingknowledge level of beekeeping, the area in which thereis requirement of training were identified on the basisof training needs percentage. The training needs scoreswere worked out in term of percentage and accordingly,

Table 2. Training needs of beekeepers ( N = 120)

S.Function/activities Category Score

No. RespondentMean score

Training RankNo. (%) need (%)

1. Selection of site and Low 3 – 4 66 55.00equipments Medium 5 – 7 43 35.80 4.60 51.11 IX

High 8 – 9 11 9.202. Life cycle of bees a Low 5 – 7 74 61.60

nd their rearing Medium 8 – 11 27 22.50 7.70 51.38 VIIIHigh 12 – 15 19 15.90

3. Frequency of Low 3 – 4 57 47.50examination during Medium 5 – 7 44 36.60 5.03 55.92 VIdifferent seasons High 8 – 9 19 15.90

4. Management of bee Low 4 – 6 48 40.00colonies during Medium 7 – 10 41 34.20 7.40 61.80 Vdifferent seasons High 11 – 12 31 25.80

5. Essential operations Low 5 – 7 32 26.60Medium 8 – 11 48 40.00 9.70 64.66 IVHigh 12 – 15 40 33.40

6. Bee forage and Low 3 – 4 63 52.50 pollination Medium 5 – 7 36 30.00 4.95 55.09 VII

High 8 – 9 21 17.50

Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 11 (1), January, 2011 69

all the areas were ranked in descending order andpresented in Table 2. Table 2 revealed that amongdifferent aspects of beekeeping, training requirementsof beekeepers was found to be highest in protection ofbee pests/diseases and other hazards (training needs84.93 per cent and rank first) followed by the businessof bees (training needs 71.35 per cent and rank second),bee-hive products and their extraction, processing andmedicinal values (training needs 70.55 per cent andrank third), essential operations (training needs 64.66per cent and rank fourth), management of bee coloniesduring different seasons (training needs 61.80 per centand rank fifth), frequency of examination during differentseasons (training needs 55.92 per cent and rank sixth),bee forage and pollinations (training needs percentage55.09 and rank seventh), life cycle of bees and theirrearing (training needs 51.38 per cent and rank eighth)and selection of site and equipments (training needs51.11 per cent and rank ninth). It implies that extensionworkers/ experts should provide more and more trainingon bee pests/diseases and other hazards, the businessof bees, bee-hive products and their processing andmedicinal values, essential operations and managementof bee colonies during different seasons.

The results of this study are in line with the findingsgiven by Chillar ( 2005 ), Naegel ( 1990 ) and Singh& Singh (2004 ).

CONCLUSIONThe study concludes that majority of the

respondents belonged to middle to young age group,medium to high level of family education, socio-economicstatus, innovativeness and risk bearing capacity. Themajority of respondents had low to medium level ofextension contact and land holding. In respect to trainingneeds of beekeepers in different areas, it was foundhighest in protection of bee pests, diseases and otherhazards (84.93%) followed by the business of bees(71.35%), bee-hive products and their extraction,processing, and medicinal values (70.55%) and essentialoperations (64.66%). Lowest was observed in selectionof site and equipment area. The extension workers/experts should organise more and more trainings on beepests/diseases and other hazards; the business of bees;bee-hive products and their processing and medicinalvalues and essential operations and management of beecolonies during different seasons.Paper received on : March 12, 2010Paper accepted on : June 25, 2010

REFERENCES

1. Chillar, B.S. (2005). Prospects of beekeeping in India. Advances in Management of Honey bees mannual, CCSHAU,Hisar, pp.1-6.

2. Naegel, L.C.A. (1990). Potentials and problems for the development of beekeeping in the Phillippines. American Bee J.130: 177-179.

3. Singh, R.P. and Singh, R.P. (2004). Beekeeping: An ideal Agro-based Industry for Rural masses of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.Kheti Duniyan. 11: 21-22.