The Honey Bee Research Institute has expressed concern over the decreasing number of honey beehives in south Punjab, saying it has affected honey production as well as that of quality fruits because bees are important pollinators.
The research has been conducted by the institute in collaboration with the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council. The teams studied mango orchards in Multan and noted that hives were disappearing quite rapidly. Ten orchards were observed in 2010, 25 orchards in 2011 and 35 orchards in 2012 in the areas of Nawabpur, Pul Raangu, Qadirpur Rawan, and Mauza Sahi-Chawan.
In 2010, there were about 10 to 12 hives in a mango orchard. In 2011, that number was reduced to four to six hives and in 2012, has come down to two or three.
Site Manager Global Pollination Project (Mango Zone) Rao Khalid told APP that bees increase fruit production by enabling cross pollination. Khalid said that Pakistan produced over 10,000 metric tonnes of honey annually, and had 400,000 honey-bee colonies.
He described increased honey production as a great opportunity for famers to make money, saying that China was exporting honey and making a lot of money.
Khalid attributed the decreasing number of hives per orchard to the “blind use of pesticides, environmental pollution and de-forestation”.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2012.
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