The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bee cultivation: A good job option for women

Hoor-e-Jannat

Halima Begum of Tangail district was married off with a poor man of neigbouring Mymensingh district when she was only 13. Endured poverty in her father's house since her birth, Halima finds no change in her plight even after her marriage.

By the time they have got two daughters and their economic condition has worsened further. Then frustrated Halima has started thinking that now it is her turn to salvage their sinking family.

One day she came to know from one of her neighbours about bee cultivation. Later, she received training on it from Proshika, an NGO. Apart from her own capital of Tk 500, she took a loan of Tk 2,000 from Proshika to start bee cultivation. And that was the turning point. Soon she has overcome her economic hardship. Halima, in her late 20s, is now a happy woman.

Shajahan Ali, 32, of Pabna, also has the same story. After graduation, he did not try to get a job. Instead, he began bee cultivation in1997after receiving training from BSCIC. He kicked off his venture with a capital of Tk 5,000. But, now his annual income is much more than Tk 100,000.

Like Halima and Shahjahan, many people have changed their fortunes through bee cultivation.

According to WHO and FAO, bee is a good medium of pollination of plants apart from producing honey. Appropriate temperature, light, water, air, fertility of soil and high-quality seed are essential for the increased production.

Despite ensuring all these requirements, sometimes farmers do not get desired harvest due to lack of successful pollination. Through pollination, bees increase production as well as the standard of seeds. The tiny creatures also help protect the equilibrium of nature. Besides, much capital and labour are not required for bee cultivation.

Bee cultivation in Bangladesh began in 1963. The then East Pakistan Small and Cottage Industries Corporation initiated the programme in Khulna and Bagerhat. But the project could not make progress for lack of appropriate technology.

Later in 1977, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) resumed bee cultivation in a scientific way. Besides, a few government, semi-government and autonomous organizations, and NGOs undertook bee cultivation-related programmes.

Along with training programmes for bee farmers at district level, BSCIC is running projects to provide follow-up programmes, technical assistance and set up bee farms through loans. Besides, it has introduced a bee cultivation centre at divisional level.

Proshika too is playing an important role by undertaking projects relating to bee cultivation and its research. Aiming to establish bee cultivation and honey production activities as an industry, Bangladesh Apicultural Association (BAA) was formed on April 21, 2005. This organization is working tirelessly to open the door of a great prospect of bee cultivation. It is trying to ensure training, technological skills for the farmers, production and use of honey, and publicity.

BAA general secretary Abdul Alim Bhuiyan says four varieties of bee are available in Bangladesh. They are apis malifera, apis dorsata, apis serena and apis frolria. Of them, apis malifera and apis serena can be cultivated in boxes while the other two varieties are available in the natural environment. On average, the honey production capacity of apis serena is 10 kilogram per bee colony. And apis malifera can produce 50-60 kgs of honey in every colony. It is easier to set up bee farms with this variety. Besides, its growth is possible through breeding process and its treatment is easier. Shamsul Islam, deputy director of a bee cultivation project, says living together of queen, male and labourer bees in a scientific way is called bee colony. In one colony, 5,000 to 80,000 can live together along with the queen. A queen can lay 1,800-2,000 eggs everyday and it live 3-4 years.

Various flowers and fruits are available in Bangladesh due to geographical reasons. Bees collect honey from corn type flowers. The highest amount of honey is available from November to June. Mustard is the main source of honey. Besides, bees collect honey from litchi, sundari, keora, garan and different types of flowers.

BSCIC director Jagdish Chandra Saha says, "Following modern system, millions of tons of honey are produced in the world. In Bangladesh, about 1,075 metric tons of honey are produced.

Of them, 810 mt are produced through scientific bee cultivation, 225 mt through honey hunters in the Sundarbans region and 40 mt from other regions. This total production can be doubled through proper initiatives.''

He says bee cultivation is a lucrative profession and with this people can earn a good amount of money in return for little investment. But there is an acute shortage of training facility, books, laboratory, research organizations and experts. If these problems could be addressed people will be attracted to bee cultivation.

Experts say honey is not only a good drink. It also resists different diseases. Besides, there are some important byproducts like bee poisons, royal jelly, pollen etc produced from bee cultivation. These byproducts are used in treatments of many serious diseases.

BAA treasurer Maqbul Hossain, also director of a honey producing organization, says, "Most people are ignorant about bee cultivation for lack of publicity. A government initiative is needed to establish bee cultivation as an industry.''

He says, "Locally produced honey can't reach consumers due to lack of proper marketing. As a result, foreign honey has captured the local market. But the standard of our honey is much better than those. Dabur, an Indian company, exports honey worth Tk 50 lakh every year. Provided proper management, we can export honey.''

Jagdish Chandra Saha says from 1.5 to 2 lakh people are directly involved in bee cultivation. It is an easy and profitable business. It is the only business in the world that does not require any raw materials. Subject to government assistance and patronization, employment can be created for 4 to 5 lakh people in this sector.

If initiatives are taken at the government level, bee cultivation will help reduce unemployment along with ensuring production and availability of pure honey apart from increased foreign currency earning.

Teen agers in energy smart initiatives

Naunidhi Kaur

It was a snowy October morning in Toronto. Maitreyi Ramachandran, a Grade 10 student of Fletcher Meadow Secondary School, summoned all her courage and rang the bell of the first house of her Brampton neighborhood. Underneath her bright orange jacket, Maitreyi was wearing her bright blue colored T-shirt, which had a picture of a Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulb in white. 'One bulb at a time' read the slogan underneath the image. "To my surprise, the people inside were very nice. When I explained that CFLs consume less energy than incandescent bulbs do they were extremely supportive and immediately replaced two bulbs in their house with the CFLs I gave them."

Maitreyi was replacing incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, under the EnergySmart programme, which appoints youth ambassadors to distribute free CFL bulbs in the community. The programme is being run by Community Environment Alliance (CEA), a Brampton, Ontario-based non-profit organisation working for a better quality of life for the community; and funded by Ministry of Energy and Hydro One Brampton, a company supplying energy to the region.

CFLs use 75 to 80 per cent less energy than do incandescent bulbs. Through the EnergySmart programme, youth ambassadors change bulbs and suggest other energy saving techniques to households.

The wider mission of the programme is to reduce the carbon footprints of residences and businesses in the community. Carbon footprints account for the units of harmful greenhouse gases emitted by individuals and businesses in the environment and are measured in terms of carbon dioxide. So when households replace the bulbs they use with CFLs they consume less energy and reduce their carbon footprints.

"The people in the house I went to told me that I was helping the world. They gave me a five dollar bill as a prize and said I should buy hot chocolate from Tim Horton's with it. I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life," says a beaming Maitreyi. Buoyed by the response, Maitreyi went around distributing the energy efficient bulbs. She has managed to replace more than 50 bulbs now. But Maitreyi is not working alone. She, along with 40 other youth ambassadors, replaced 885 incandescent bulbs in the first phase (October 2007-March 2008) of the programme. The youth reached 439 homes and helped reduce use of 41,537 watts of energy. Till date, 90 youngsters have joined the programme.

While some have been knocking on their neighbours' doors alone, others like Shreya Bhandari, a Grade 8 student at Allan A. Martin Public School, have been accompanied by younger siblings. "My little brother, who is 8 years old, can't wait till he is old enough to join EnergySmart. He thinks it is a great way to save our planet. He goes with me to help me replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents," grins Shreya, who has changed 100 bulbs so far.

Students between 12 and 19 years are welcome to join the programme after having attended any of the three-hour long orientation sessions organised by CEA in public libraries and community centres to familiarise youth with the programme and issues such as saving energy and phantom load.

Since August this year, the second phase of the programme is on and the executive council of EnergySmart has been trying out ways to get more youth involved. Sarabjot Anand, Grade 11 student of North Park Secondary School, is the vice president of the EnergySmart council. On November 13, Sarabjot along with his brother Kuljot presented a Powerpoint presentation on the EnergySmart programme in the auditorium of Four Corners Library in Brampton. When the brothers spoke, the 30 children present, most of whom were from North Park School, listened. Sarabjot began the presentation by showing a Youtube video on an unhappy future when the present generation failed to work on climate change and global warming. By the end of the video, Sarabjot managed to motivate many to learn about the programme.

Sarabjot says, "EnergySmart has taught me how to make presentations and how to conduct orientation sessions. It has taught me how to approach different target audiences. For instance, when I approach high school students, I am careful to make my presentation fun and interactive. However, when I am out on the street convincing my neighbours to use CFLs I adopt a more serious, to-the-point approach to bring about a change."

Change is what youth ambassadors like Aaron Pinto,17, who became an EnergySmart ambassador in August, have been bringing. "EnergySmart is an exciting opportunity for youth, like me, to take action and get an excellent hands-on experience in making a change." What inspires Aaron to replace bulbs in the community is the knowledge that he is educating and empowering the members in community to make energy-efficient choices.

Aaron has replaced more than 80 bulbs in the last three months. The Mississauga neighbourhood where he lives has detached medium-sized houses where people from different nationalities and cultures live. "Actually, it was quite easy for me to convince patrons to replace their current light bulbs with CFLs. It seems to me that many (mainly from Mississauga and Brampton) want to make-energy efficient choices and want to build a good and environmentally-friendly future for themselves, as well as their families. I am sure that this situation is a mere microcosm for what the Canadian society at large believes in," he says.

What encourages the students to power through in their endeavour is the Enerpoints system that is an intrinsic part of the programme. This reward system is designed to give scholarships to children, who collect the maximum EnerPoints, which can be earned on a number of actions that have been set up by CEA. For instance, they get three EnerPoints when they give each replaced incandescent bulb to CEA. Interestingly, the organisation is going to engage a local artist to create an energy tree - from the collected incandescent bulbs - to be placed in a public area to show how energy has been saved through the project. Furthermore, two EnerPoints can be earned on every blue-coloured pledge form that has been signed by households that have changed their bulbs.

This is where the scope of the programme becomes wider: when households take the pledge they not only promise to use CFLs, but also agree to use other energy-saving methods - such as cutting down the phantom load in their households. Phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the power used by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode. For example, a television set switched on with remote control consumes energy when not in use.

Back in Four Corners Library, Sarabjot is explaining phantom load to the students during the EnergySmart orientation. He has a watt-meter, which he attaches to a toaster and explains how if the toaster is not unplugged when not in use it is consuming energy. At the end of the session, many students sign up to be EnergySmart ambassadors. Sarabjot asks them how many bulbs they would be able to change by December and a consensus is reached on 500 more bulbs.

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service

Women farmers fighting for their rights

Amit Dwivedi

I am the first woman farmer in my block who started cultivation 15 years back," said 45 years old Aisha Begum Khatoon of Hridaypur village in Ambedkarnagar district. When she picked up the hoe for the first time, all the villagers rebuked her for treading on a man's domain. However, she decided to move forward, despite all odds, in order to look after her three daughters and one son.

Her husband lives in the city and takes no interest in agricultural activities. She owns a mere half acre land, but by resorting to organic farming, she is able to provide bread and better to her family of five members. She is now able to produce more than 20 varieties of crops, thanks to organic farming, and has become a role model for other women farmers of her area. Aisha Begum is grateful to the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG), for teaching her multi-layer cropping patterns, as well as time and space management.

Organic farming has provided her with a sustainable and economically viable model of agriculture production. She is also involved with Ekta Self Help Group and is the President of NARI Manch (this forum provides agriculture related information to women farmers). She has also been successful in creating more than 250 self help groups. Now her husband and her other family members take pride in her work. The Uttar Pradesh state agriculture Minister, Mr Chaudhari Laxmi Narayan, awarded her recently, during the Kisaan Sansad (Farmers' Parliament), in recognition of her excellent work in agriculture production.

Women farmers, despite being one of the biggest labor forces in India, are still fighting for their rights and identity. In India more than 84 per cent of women are involved in agricultural and/or allied activities. The agricultural sector provides employment to nearly 4/5 of the total women work force in India. One third of the agricultural laborers are women and 48 per cent of the women farmers are considered self employed in the agriculture sector.

According to a study conducted by GEAG, in Uttar Pradesh, 70 per cent of the state's population is involved in agricultural activities, making it a food surplus state. Women family members of about 80% of small and marginal farmers are involved in agricultural activities.Yet land holding rights of women farmers are a mere 6.5 per cent out of which a majority of them (81 per cent) got their land after the death of their husband, while only 19 per cent got it from their mother's side.

Neelam Prabhat, State Coordinator, Aaroh Abhiyaan, (a campaign for the empowerment of women farmers and their rights) working in GEAG, Uttar Pradesh said, "despite the tremendous contribution of women farmers in agricultural sector ,they have always been marginalized and denied their rights, not only by their family and society ,but by the policy makers as well.

In general, they are treated as the assistants of male farmers."

She further said, " According to a recent report published by The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year mostly due to soaring food prices, and the number of undernourished people worldwide is approaching the 1-billion mark. We can reduce this number if we empower women farmers and give them land holdings rights and joint bank accounts with their husbands."

The total number of hungry people has risen to 963 million this year, up from 923 million last year. FAO has cautioned, in the latest edition of its global hunger report, that this number could rise further as a result of the ongoing financial and economic crisis. In view of this we should strengthen production in a comprehensive way and should give the rights, long over due, to women farmers. In this way they will become an asset, not only to their families but also to society and the entire country.