Uva bee keeping farmers get CBL support to produce increased honey yield
CBL, the manufacturers of popular Munchee Biscuits initiated a special project as a part of its CSR initiatives to assist the bee keeping farmers of Welimada , keppetipola, Boralanda in the Bandarawela areas as far back in 2005 in response to a request made by the Provincial Director of Agriculture for the assistance of CBL to rehabilitate the declining Honey industry.
Since then CBL implemented an attractive guaranteed price scheme with a promise to purchase all the honey produced in the Uva province. This project was strongly supported by a multi pronged approached with the supply of bee keeping equipment, extension and training on bee keeping.cbl also assisted the producers in marketing the products through its existing distribution channels.
The project won the confidence of the ARTGOLD project of the UNDP, sponsored an assistance programme twice ,during the period 2006 – 2010 . In recognition of the contribution made by the project it was rewarded with the best sustainability project award in 2015 at the Best Corporate Citizen Awards organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
In 2015, the honey project was supported by the National Agribusiness Development programme (NADEP) under the state sponsored project to promote the public/ private sector participation to enhance agricultural production. Under this new programme over 500 bee keepers were provided with all their hardware requirements , technical training supported by an attractive guaranteed price scheme.
Aruna Lokupothagamage Manager Special Projects who is in charge mentioned that the project started with 350kg in 2005 has now grown up to 7,000kg in 2014 and their target is to increase the honey yield up to 25,000kg (25 Mt.) by the year 2018. He also mentioned that school leavers, unemployed youth and house wives have shown interest in joining this project under the new assistance scheme.
It was also revealed that Sri Lanka imports 70 – 80 Mt. annually while having all the favorable conditions to reach self sufficiency in honey if not surplus for export.