MANIKGANJ, Dec 24, 2018 (BSS) – About 100 commercial honey collectors
are passing busy days in collecting honey from the blooming flowers of
mustard in Manikganj district.
The honey collectors from the outsides of Manikganj district are running
from one mustard field to another field of all seven upazilas of the district
with their bee boxes.
During a recent visit to mustard fields in the district, this
correspondent found that many honey collectors set up bee boxes in the fields
aiming to collect honey.
Abdul Gafur (56), who came from Sirajganj with his younger son, said they
are expecting to collect 20 mounds of honey during this winter season.
Homey collection is their seasonal occupation and they have been
collecting honey from Manikganj for 10 years, he said.
Honey collectors of Jamalpur, Gazipur, Pabna, Satkhira, Narayanganj,
Kushtia and Sirajganj came to Manikganj this season and they are now
collecting honey from the mustard fields across the district.
Rashed Ali, another honey collector hailed from Kushtia, said they sell
their honey at different parts of Dhaka at Tk 8,000 to Tk 10,000 per mound.
“We welcome the honey collectors as it helps increase our production and
we get some honey from the collector as gift,” said Sheikh Fazal, a mustard
cultivator.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said bees
help do pollination as bees fly from flowers to flowers during honey
collection, which help increase mustard production by about 15 percent.
They said the DAE expected that about 35 metric tonnes of honey would be
collected from Manikganj district in the current season.
Honey collection was started here in November and will continue still
the second week of January, the DAE officials said.
DAE deputy director Habibur Rahman Chowdhury said honey collection from
the mustard fields is a positive thing as the bees contribute to pollination
that helps produce more mustard.