Dong Thanh: Developing beekeeping

(Baonghean) - Dong Thanh mountainous commune, Yen Thanh district is blessed with many advantages to develop the beekeeping industry. Currently, the whole commune has about 150 households following the profession and has brought in a high income.

Mr. Pham Van Loi's family in Dong Trung hamlet (Dong Thanh commune) is one of the households with many years of experience in the profession of "beekeeping and honey extraction". He is considered to have many "secrets" in the local beekeeping profession. To pursue this profession, he previously took the trouble to find people with a lot of experience in the profession and consulted knowledge through books, newspapers, and documents to study the living habits of bees and honey beekeeping techniques. If 12 years ago he only raised 2 pilot hives, now he has multiplied to over 100 hives.

Along with that, in the entire garden area, he planted over 100 longan and lychee trees, which not only brought in extra income but also provided raw materials for bees to produce honey. Thanks to his experience, combined with favorable natural conditions, each year his family's bee colony produces nearly 500 liters of honey. With the current selling price of 270,000 - 300,000 VND/1 liter of honey, each year his family also earns hundreds of millions of VND in profit. Mr. Pham Van Loi shared: According to experience, if you want bees to develop and be healthy, you must regularly check the bees in the winter, once a week. If you detect sick bees, you must treat them promptly, especially with rot disease. At the beginning of spring, you must replace the queen with a new, healthy and young one so that the bees can reproduce quickly, increasing the productivity and quality of the honey.

Mr. Pham Van Loi, Dong Trung hamlet, Dong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) instructs on honey bee keeping techniques.

Also according to the experience of the people here, the characteristic of bees is that they multiply themselves, because bees reproduce very quickly, after 2 to 3 months there is a large number of worker bees. In the spring, the weather is warm, there are many flowers and this is the main honey crop of the year, the harvest time lasts from February to June of the lunar calendar (the remaining time due to the small amount of flowers, so the amount of honey produced is only enough to feed the bees). If well cared for, after a year, a colony can be divided into 5 to 6 colonies. Raising bees, the effort and time is only half that of farming and less energy consuming but requires the beekeeper to be skillful and diligent. According to statistics, currently in Dong Thanh commune there are over 1,000 honey bee hives, with 150 households participating, concentrated mostly in 8 hill hamlets. Mr. Le Thac Phu in Dong Phu hamlet, Dong Thanh commune said: In terms of income, beekeeping does not cost much, only investing in techniques and time. Although I am new to this profession, I find it much more effective than raising chickens, pigs, buffaloes and cows. Especially the products cannot meet the market demand.

Being a hilly, semi-mountainous area with many potential advantages with 1,731 hectares of forest land and forest gardens, in recent times, along with promoting the restructuring of the agricultural economy, the Party Committee and the government of Dong Thanh commune have considered honey beekeeping as one of the sustainable development occupations, contributing to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and enrichment for farmers. With the help of the Western Economic and Technical Vocational College and Nghe An Bee Company, in 2013, the Commune Farmers' Association coordinated to organize a short-term vocational training course on honey beekeeping techniques with 100 farmer members participating. After completing the course, all members implemented the model right at home, initially bringing quite clear results. Mr. Luong Van Hoan - Chairman of the Dong Thanh Commune Farmers' Association said: In the coming time, the commune will conduct a preliminary summary of the first 6 months of the year, thereby gathering and grasping each branch and each family to summarize after the end of the class. After having specific data, based on the advantages of each region, each area, in which priority is given to developing beekeeping in 8 hilly hamlets. At the same time, advise the Party Committee and the Commune People's Committee to find capital sources to support households that want to keep bees, but are still limited in terms of economy.

It can be said that the beekeeping profession in Dong Thanh commune has been opening up a sustainable way to get rich for many households. However, in order for beekeeping households to boldly invest and replicate the model, contributing to hunger eradication and poverty reduction, enriching the homeland, the functional sectors need to pay attention in many aspects, as well as apply appropriate support policies to move towards the commune establishing a beekeeping association. This is considered an important premise in shifting the local economic structure associated with protecting the ecological environment, improving the quality of community life.

Article and photos:T.Duong - H.Nhung