Acknowledgements

I would like to express to my respected Head of Department Umesh LAmsal,

Department of Science, Sanothimi Campus . for providing me essential facilities. I
do appreciate the helps and encouragement received from entomology teachers
of Zoology Dr. Pratima Tamrakar, Sanothimi Campus . I would like to express my
immense pleasure and sincere gratitude to Binod Lamichane , Senior officer
Sericulture Development Division, Khopasi for his valuable instruction, criticisms
and continuous encouragement whenever needed and under whose ideal
guidance. I was able to come to an end of this dissertation.
Lastly, I thank those friends, family members and lectures of the department
without whose help cannot lead to success of the present study.

Shona Timalshina
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents pages

•Introduction 1

• LITERATURE REVIEW 2

•Objectives of the study 3

•Material and methods 4

• Results and discussion 5

• Conclusion 6

• Limitation of the Study 7

• Reference 8

• Questainaire 9

• Photo 10
 1. Introduction
Beekeeping has been in practice from an ancient time in Nepal. It is one of the potential sectors
to generate the employment and increase the income for the people in Nepal. Beekeeping is
landless and marginalized based farming provides the economic, nutritional, and ecological
benefits.

Beekeeping in the Nepal carried the tremendous potentiality due to the distribution of high
diversified bee flora [Bista S. Honeybee flora at Kabre, Dolakha district. Nepal Agriculture
Research Journa] and suitable climatic condition for honeybee diversity [Thapa R. Honeybees
of Nepal: Diversity, beekeeping]. Although Apiculture contributes a very small fraction (less
than 1%) to Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP), beekeeping has been considered as a
high value income-generating agriculture activity in Agricultural perspective plan (APP), and it
has also been mentioned in the tenth plan. The topographical, climatic, and floral varieties spell
heaven for beekeeping in Nepal [5]. Five of the world’s seven species of honeybee Apis
laboriosa S., Apis dorsata F., Apis florae F., and Apis cerana F., and one exotic honeybee Apis
mellifera L. are found from the plain to the high Himalayan in Nepal.. The farmers in Nepal kept
the bees to meet the demand of honey in the local, national, and international markets and also
for the pollination in some crops like Oilseed crops, Buckwheat, and fruit crops to increase the
yield. The bee species plays crucial role in the conservation of biodiversity by pollinating wild
flowers in the entire region, and the species for ecotourism development and income generation
in the poor, rural, and landless people in Nepal [The Himalayan giant honey bee and its role in
ecotourism development in Nepa]. It helps to enhance agricultural productivity and conserves
biological diversity and ecosystem through ensured pollination services Despite the huge
benefits of beekeeping both in the term of economic and ecological aspects, the quantity and
quality of honey production over a period of time was satisfactory may be due to the insufficient
management of practices and lack of the training [8]. Beekeeping is very important to increase
the productivity of the crops and increase the income of the farmers in the Nepal. In this context,
the objectives of the study were to figure out the beekeeping situation by exploring the data on
the number of hives, honey production and export situation through the electronic sources and
the authorized government organizations.
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The practice of beekeeping not only depends on the honeybee's strain but also on the volume and
occurrence of pollen and nectar within the surrounding area of an apiary (Free, 1970;
Akrathanakal, 1987). Apiculture is deeply seated in the Ethiopian rural life and has a long
tradition of beekeeping with about 3-5 million honeybee colonies producing about 21 thousand
tons of honey annually (Fitchal and Admasu, 1994). In Nepalese society honey hunting has been
practicing for more than thousand years (Joshi, 2008). Thus, this occupation can be defined as
cultural heritage. Beekeeping is an occupation of economically marginal families in Nepal
(Adhikari and Ranabhat, 2011). Beekeeping is a rearing of honeybees for honey and other bee
products and also for pollination. In China, Chun (1993) estimated the increase in seed yield of
four major crops rape, cotton, tea and sunflower through honeybees. Bees contribute about 60-
80%pollination service and it is more important than honey and other bee products (Neupane,
2006). Pollination is critical ecosystem services provided by insect and about 16% of world
flowering plant species are pollinated by bees and nearly 400 species of agricultural plants
(Crane and Walker, 1984). In Nepal honeybees are distributed from high altitude to low altitude
i.e., from high hills to lowlands Tarai. Nepal possesses a good rank in biodiversity, also to
honeybee diversity (Woyke,
1999).
The major constraints in beekeeping were the expensive inputs, pest attack, lack of modern
production and rearing techniques, and trainings which can be overcome by a comprehensive
program focusing on the provision of low cost inputs, pesticides/insecticides, modern techniques
and trainings, and value chain market facilities at the local and regional level.
 3. Objectives of study
General objective
The general objective of this thesis was to assess the current status of apiculture in honey
production and investigate challenges and opportunities.
Specific objectives
To identify the current status of apiculturist activities and their roles in the economic activities of
the society.
4. Material and methods
The present field work had been undertaken in Apiculture Development Division, Godawori,
Lalitpur district of Nepal. It is about 17 km from the Sanothimi bhaktpur..The secction presents
the methods and procedures employed in the study .The desing of the field work actual model
uses to achive the objects of during the study period.This the theoretical work based on the
secondary data and literature available about the beekeeping in Nepal. The secondary data on the
beehives number and honey production were taken from Government of Nepal and the data on
the export of honey were taken from the Apiculture Development Centre (ADC), Ministry of
Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Government of Nepal. The data were gathered and coded in
the MS-Excel. The trend analysis on the different years, number of hives, production and the
export situation was carried out using the ggplot in R program [
5. Results and discussion
5.1 History of beekeeping in Nepal

Beekeeping is a cultural heritage in Nepalese community, practiced from an

ancient time as honey hunting has been dated back to thousands of years. In 1980,
Beekeeping Development Section (BDS) was formed for the development and
extension of the apiculture under Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) with
mandated to conduct research on various aspects of applied entomology including
industrial entomology . A. cerena now remains with the farmers from the hilly and
mountain regions areas like Dhading, Humla, Jumla, Jajarkot, Kaski, Lamjung,
Lalitpur, etc. A. mellifera has not arrived in these areas due to road and transportation
inaccessibility, and also difficulties in the management practices such as keeping the
colonies warm, feeding sugar, and migrating to low hill areas in winter season .
5.2 Statistics of beekeeping

Honeybees in Nepal are characterized through greatly variations based on the altitude
and topography. More than 50,000 Nepalese households are involved in beekeeping,
rearing 125,000 beehives and producing about 1100 t of honey per year .in which,
29.86% of honey produced from A. cerana, 39.19% from wild honeybees and 33.93%
from A. mellifera. The honey produced from the A. cerena (rear in the traditional
wooden loghives),

In scenario of beekeeping industry, in Nepal, the honeybee industry includes 5700

registered beekeepers operating 55,000 hives. A hive is home to 25,000–70,000 bees,
depending on the species .The number of beehives, including those from non-
commercial keepers was 280,000 in the 2017/2018 fiscal year, twice as many as
10 years ago, 2009; those hives produced 5500 tonnes of honey, more than six times
the yield from 10 years ago .

From the data , the number of the beehives is increasing from 140,000 in 2009 to
280,000 in 2018. Similarly, as the number of hives increases, the honey production
was also increasing during the 10-years period, which is shown in Figure 1.
5.3 Source of livelihood

The average landholding of small-scale farmers in Nepal is just 0.03 ha and many
have less than 6 months of food security. Food security is not possible without income
security; honey production through beekeeping could be a useful avenue for
improving economy. Poor, marginal, and even landless farmers can benefit from
beekeeping to support their livelihoods as it can be started even with limited resources
giving income and supplying nutrition to them

5.4 Beekeeping for the crop production

The ecological importance of bees in crop pollination and the preservation of the
biodiversity of both flora and fauna are unquestionable. Pollination is a valuable
ecosystem service for the production of fruits, vegetables, nuts, cotton, and oilseed
crops among many other agricultural crops

5.5Future prospects and potential of beekeeping

Beekeeping and honey production in Nepal is still under development stage. Due to
the climatic suitability and being a more profitable business, many farmers from
different regions start beekeeping with a small-scale investment to attain the
sustainable.

A study conducted in Godawari showed that beekeeping practices can improve the
farmers’ livelihood and also have great importance on the pollination, which helps to
boost up the agricultural production in the country. The available resources in the
country are favorable for production of honey, beeswax, and other bee products. The
presence of the wild honeybees hanging in the high mountain and the domesticated
honeybees in the wooden log hives managed by existing indigenous knowledge in
beekeeping and honey hunting ensures potential for developing bee watch eco-
tourism.
6. Conclusion
In the field in Godawari varied diversity of ecological zones in Nepal, from the plains to the
mountains favors the beekeeping. The beekeeping has been increased during a decade and the
competitive market opportunities exist in the honey and honey products from the Nepal
developed the domestic and international markets and reaching growing consumer not only in
Nepal, but also large adjacent markets in India and China fetching good prices. The price of the
honey was increased around 10 times during the 15 years period of beekeeping. We can conclude
that a new perspective relationship between beekeeping and crop pollination, emphasizing that
pollinator deficit can be mitigated through beekeeping, which enhances the livelihoods of
farmers through greater crop yields and economic benefit received by selling bee products.
7. Limitation of the Study
Due to limited laboratory facilities detail pollen analysis was not feasible. Thus, nectar
concentration and its volume from each bee flora during different harvesting periods
were not performed. Hence, plants, which were categorized into polleniferous and
nectariferous plants were mostly from the secondary sources. Thus, this study mostly
limited with garden plant and horticultural plant species. Therefore, the identification
becomes much easier and less confusion.
8. References
1.Bista S. Honeybee flora at Kabre, Dolakha district. Nepal Agriculture Research Journal.
2001;5:18-25

2.Adhikari S, Ranabhat NB. Bee flora in mid hills of Central Nepal. Journal of Plant Science.
2011;8:4-56

3.Aryal S, Thapa R, Jung C. An overview of beekeeping economy and its constraints in

Nepal. Journal of Apiculture. 2015;30(3):135-142

4.Thapa R. Honeybees of Nepal: Diversity, beekeeping, and medical applications of bee

products. Sonsik Journal. 2012;4:1-9

5.Shrestha KK, Verma LR. Beekeeping research and training in hindukush-himalayan

region: Future perspectives. In: Proceedings of International Expert Meeting on Beekeeping
Development in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region; 21-23 June 1989. Kathmandu, Nepal.
New Delhi, India: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd; 1989. pp. 251-257

6.Thapa R. The Himalayan giant honey bee and its role in ecotourism development in Nepal.
Bee World. 2001;82(3):139-141

7.Thapa RB. Honeybees and other insect pollinators of cultivated plants: A review. Journal
of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences. 2006;27:1-23

8.Thapa R, Aryal S, Jung C. Beekeeping and honey hunting in Nepal: Current status and
future perspectives. 2018

9.R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria:
The R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2016

10. kedar devkota Published: August 26th, 2020 google schlor