Hyderabad:World Bee Day is celebrated across the world every year on 20 May. Beekeeper programs educate the public about the importance of bees and beekeeping. These events place special emphasis on the role that bees play as pollinators, highlighting the important role they play in increasing forest cover.
The process of pollination plays a major role in growing the fruits, vegetables or grains that we eat. Bees help in carrying pollen from one plant to another. When a bee sits on a flower, pollen grains stick to its legs and wings and when it flies and sits on another plant, these pollen grains go to that plant and fertilize it, thereby producing fruits and seeds. Is originated.
Theme of World Bee Day 2024:In recognition of the pivotal role that youth can play in addressing challenges bees and other pollinators are facing, World Bee Day 2024 focuses on the theme 'Bee engaged with Youth'.
History of World Bee Day:This day was started by the United Nations to commemorate the birth anniversary of Anton Jansa. On May 20, 2016, the idea of mind in support of Apimondia was proposed by the Slovenian government. This proposal was approved by the member states of the United Nations in 2017. In the proposal, it was said that specific conservation measures should be implemented and bee conservation should be given importance. After this, World Bee Day was celebrated for the first time in 2018.
Contribution of bees to agriculture:Bees help increase food productivity for approximately two billion smallholder farmers around the world. It also helps in ensuring food security for the world's population. Research conducted in the agricultural sector shows that if pollination by bees and other insects is arranged properly on small diversified farms, then there has been an increase of about 24 per cent in the crop yield. 70 per cent of the world's agriculture is dependent on insects. In such a situation, we can say that 70 out of 100 food items have the influence of bees.
The Sweet Revolution of India:
Sweet revolution is an ambitious initiative of the Government of India, which is aimed at promoting apiculture, popularly known as 'beekeeping', for accelerating the production of quality honey and other related products.
Beekeeping is a low investment and highly skilled enterprise model, in which technology application has emerged as a great enabler for socio-economic growth.
The demand for good quality honey has grown over the years as it is considered a naturally nutritious product. Other apiculture products such as royal jelly, beeswax, pollens, etc., are also used extensively in different sectors like pharmaceuticals, food, beverage, beauty, and others.
Scaling up beekeeping will double farmers’ income, generate employment, ensure food security and bee conservation, and increase crop productivity and pollination. To provide a booster shot to Sweet Revolution, the government launched the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission, for the overall promotion and development of scientific beekeeping in mission mode.
Beekeeping in India:Diversified agro-climatic conditions of India provide great potential for beekeeping/ honey production. The scientific technology being adopted for increasing production and testing of honey by maintaining quality standards for national and international markets and promoting the production of other beehive products viz.; bee pollen, bees wax, royal jelly, propolis & bee venom. This has facilitated the beekeepers to increase their income and increased demand of honey and beehive products both in the domestic and international markets.
Beekeeping & Employment Possibilities:Beekeeping helps to provide additional source of income and employment generation to rural masses. As per estimates only 10 per cent of the existing potential for beekeeping has been utilised in the country and there is much untapped potential. India has a potential of over 200 million bee colonies as against 3.4 million colonies at present which can provide employment to over six million rural families. Organised honey collection using modern techniques can provide additional 120,000 tons of honey and 10,000 tons of beeswax from the forests. This can provide employment to five million tribal families. Increasing honeybee colonies shall not only increase production of bee products but aso will ensure sustainability of food production through enhanced agricultural and horticultural crop production. Beekeeping industry and its expansion faces several challenges which need to be addressed to make this industry more profitable.
The Life on Earth without Honeybees:As a matter of fact, one in every three bites of food consumed around the world depends on pollinators, bees in particular, for a successful crop, and without these hard-working insects most of our favorite foods would sadly not exist. As far as important species go, they are top of the list. They are critical pollinators: they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90 per cent of the world. Honey bees are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops.
That’s only the start. We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain. Which means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of seven billion. Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables. It gets worse. We are losing bees at an alarming rate. Possible reasons include the loss of flower meadows, the crab-like varroa mite that feasts on their blood, climate change, and use of pesticides.
With the decline of bees, not only would the foods we love disappear, but also the food we need. Some of the most vitamin and mineral-rich foods are dependent on insect pollination. Deficiencies in these nutrients can have devastating effects on human health, with an increased risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease, as well as malnutrition and mortality in less-developed regions.
Species of bee in the world:There are over 20,000 species of bee that exist globally. Native bees have co-evolved with our unique native flora over thousands of years. Some species of plant can only be pollinated by a particular species of bee. In the absence of pollination, the plant species cannot reproduce so if that bee species dies, so too will the plant.
Interesting Facts:
- Though bees have jointed legs, they do not possess anything like a kneecap, and therefore do not have knees
- Honey has antiseptic properties and was historically used as a dressing for wounds and a first aid treatment for burns and cuts
- The natural fruit sugars in honey – fructose and glucose – are quickly digested by the body. This is why sportsmen and athletes use honey to give them a natural energy boost
- The practice of beekeeping dates back at least 4,500 years
- Bees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey
- One bee has to fly about 90,000 miles – three times around the globe – to make one pound of honey
- The average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime
- A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip
- A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour
- Bees communicate by dancing
