Bee the way forward

The age-old sweetener -- organic and pure honey -- is a priceless commodity and a health-conscious consumer's primary choice.

Under The Mango Tree (UTMT), founded by Vijaya Pastala, has been working directly with farmers to source pure honey and bring it to the market. And not just that. The enterprise also supports rural households through the sale of honey.

UTMT will be participating in the Upper Crust Food Exhibition which will be held from March 2 to 4 at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru "Honey has immense health benefits. It is an antioxidant and has antimicrobial, and soothing effects. It is made up of glucose, fructose and minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphate, sodium chloride, potassium and magnesium," says Vijaya Pastala, CEO/ founder UTMT.

Elaborating on the honey that UTMT is producing and its health benefits, she says, "these are 100 per cent natural honey with no preservatives or artificial flavours.''

So how did the idea germinate? "After combining the realities that prevail in rural India with the objective of diversifying livelihoods and improving rural incomes," she says.

Working with rural farmers, she helped them find livelihood options, develop village-based business plans and gave them training to organise themselves and explore micro-finance options for better business options.

"However, finding sustainable and long-term markets that empowered farmers was difficult," she says.

She wanted to find a viable solution to markets that desired quality organic certified, all-natural products but had a limited and inconsistent chain of suppliers.

Vijaya realised that small beekeeping societies produced various flavours of honey that never reached urban markets. Also, the typical value chain for agricultural commodities is long apart from being unprofitable.

She then developed the idea of training farmers to add bee boxes on farms in order to facilitate cross-pollination.

This also helped provide markets to sell the honey collected.

"Through UTMT, we try to establish a fair-trade market for locally produced honey that is natural, organic and sustainable," she says.

"Through the non-profit UTMT Society, smallholding farmers are trained to use bees to increase their incomes,'' she adds.