Honey is money for tribal women in Adilabad district of Telangana

ADILABAD:  Women belonging to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) such as Kolams will soon be trying their hand at making honey and earning a handsome amount of money in the process. As bees are abound in the Adilabad district because of the thick woods, the government is encouraging the PVTGs to try out honey making which might get them up to `60,000 per year.

The officials have identified women in the erstwhile Adilabad district and are training them in apiculture. In Kumurambheem Asifabad district, officials are creating awareness about honey collection among the women of vulnerable tribal groups. They have distributed five honey boxes to each woman in five mandals. The villages are: Routasankupalli in Adilabad mandal, Nissani (Kerameri) Ushagaon in Jainoor, Chamanpalli (Wankidi) and Dhantanpalli in Tiryani mandal. In these five mandals, the officials selected 125 women and are training them.

After their one-week training, they would begin making honey with the boxes provided by the officials. The officials expect that each box would yield 2 kg of honey per month which works out to 10 kg per month. Assistant Project Director of District Rural Development B Srinivas said in the first phase, 10 women were trained in Edulwada village in Tiryani mandal and were given boxes.

The honey would fetch the women about `500 per kg in the market. The officials said if this initiative becomes successful, they would set up a honey processing plant in Asifabad for value addition to honey. District Collector Rahul Raj and Additional Collector Varun Reddy are showing keen interest in making the initiative a success.