Beekeeping is a forest and agro-based industry, which is beyond the ordinary realms of industry, in the sense that the humans derive benefits from interaction between two living things like plants and bees without affecting adversely both. On the contrary plants, including many crops, prosper with the abundance of bees (as pollinating agents) and the bees, sheltered both by nature and humans provide mainly honey and other by-products like beeswax, bee-pollen, propolis and royal jelly. Bee-keeping, systematically adopted as a supplement to farming, can bring prosperity to the villages of Uttara Kannada, a district endowed with species rich forests and cultivation of a high diversity crops.  Unlike intensive farming or fishing that can corrode the natural resource base, abundance of honey bees in a natural environment benefits both crops and wild plants.

Apis of family Apidae is the main genus of honey bee accounting for bulk of honey production, and the genus Trigona, also from the same family, is a minor producer of honey. Uttara Kannada has three species of Apis viz. A. dorsata dorsata, A. cerana indica, and A. florea and one species Trigona (T. irridipennis). In the recent times these bee populations suffered decline in the Western Ghats due to many factors, the major ones being poor management practices, epidemics such as Thai sacbrood, Nosema, and Foulbrood disease and pests like Varroa mites. Predator insects like wasp, wax-moth and some insectivorous birds like bee eaters, drongoes etc are minor causes affecting bee populations.

Beekeepers co-operative societies, formed under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) played crucial role in strengthening beekeeping activities in the district. Five beekeepers co-operative societies were established at Honavar, Kumta, Ankola, Sirsi-Yellapur and Siddapur of Uttara Kannada. In the current study the performance of beekeepers co-operative societies in the taluks of Ankola, Kumta, Honavar and Siddapur of Uttara Kannada was evaluated with regard to promotion of beekeeping and honey procurement. The constraints for the growth of such societies are discussed. Honavar society had the highest number of members (992) in 2011, and Ankola society had the lowest (204). A glance through the growth in membership over the past 11 years of all these societies reveal only stunted growth. Although the potential of bee-keeping in Uttara Kannada, a well forested and horticulturally important district, is tremendous, the potential is hardly ever realized due to the lack of co-ordinated approach.  Sirsi-Yellapur society had gone almost defunct compared to other societies. In a free market economy, with ever increasing demand for honey from local markets and cities, the bee-keeper’s societies, instead of going redundant, can play important role in systematically nurturing bee-keeping through awareness creation and training programmes, foster the growth of bee forage plants and pave way for creation of employment for thousands of rural people.

Apart from studies on bee keeping made through the aforesaid society’s primary data was collected from randomly selected 83 villages, through interviews with help of a questionnaire. Using the latter was collected the number of boxes the farmers kept, variability in honey production in relation to regions and climate, processing and marketing of honey and on important bee-forage plants. Problems and prospects of bee-keeping were also assessed. The study revealed that 105 bee-keepers whom we interviewed together owned 1453 bee boxes, at an average of 14 boxes each. The total honey production from the district, based on household surveys, amounted to 10,424 kg, during the year 2011, at a district average of 6.68 kg/per bee box. This figure does not include honey procurement by the societies, which is much lower, as most societies are not good performers and are passing through a waning phase.  Average honey production/box ranged from 5.73 kg in Honavar, a coastal taluk, to 9.45 kg in Sirsi taluk of malnadu region. Of the other coastal taluks the average production of Kumta was 5.94 kg/box and that of Ankola was 6.72 kg/box. Siddapur and Yellapur in the malnadu had average production per box of 5.96 kg and 6.29 kg respectively. Even though we documented six apparent types of unifloral honey from Sirsi taluk (viz. from plants Strobilanthes, Syzygium, Schleischera, Carallia brachiata, Sapindus, Glyricidia)  the consumers in general recognize only two types namely mixed honey and soapnut (Sapindus) honey. The demand for soapnut honey is high, despite its high prices ranging from Rs.700-1000/kg, due to its purported medicinal values, as compared to other honey, including mixed honey, where the prices range from Rs.150-300/kg.

The family sizes of bee-keepers in the study area ranged from 2 to 16 members at an average of 5.25 per family. Bee-keeping, evidently, was mostly a male dominated enterprise. Greater participation of female members is necessary to take better care of the economic and nutritional security of rural households. For attracting more people towards bee-keeping, an eco-friendly and high income generating rural enterprise, it is necessary to enrich the surroundings of villages with high nectar producing plants. Vacant lands, public premises, roadsides, estuaries and seashores should be enriched with suitable habitat-specific bee foraging plants. The genera like Syzygium, Terminalia, Strobilanthes, Holigarna, Sapindus, Vateria, Lagerstroemia, Emblica, Dalbergia, Pongamia, Pterocarpus, Xylia, Strychnos, Careya, Vitex, Avicennia etc. are some of the important foraging resources for honeybees in Uttara Kannada.