A Tk 50,000 loan bought 20 bee boxes; now about 100 boxes and up to Tk 50,000 a month

In Alipur village of Durgapur upazila, Rajshahi, a boy's father is a day labourer. Because of poverty he left school after reaching class eight, and the odd jobs he tried did not work out. On his brother-in-law's advice he took a Tk 50,000 NGO loan and bought 20 bee boxes, with no training in beekeeping. According to Ajker Patrika, he now has about 100 boxes placed in three fields across two villages. Every 10 days he gets on average three and a half to four maunds of honey. Mustard honey sells at Tk 600 a kg retail and Tk 400 to 450 wholesale, and many buyers come to the field itself. That brings Tk 45,000 to 50,000 a month. He began with local bees, then brought in Chinese-variety bees, which yield more honey. When the mustard season ends he moves the boxes to Dinajpur and Rangpur to collect from litchi, black cumin and coriander flowers, whose honey fetches a higher price than mustard honey. The upazila agriculture officer says many unemployed young people in the area have taken up beekeeping after seeing his success.