Kudumbashree - Success Story of Madhushree

Producing honey and  tasting success: Success Story of Madhushree

Kayyur Chiemeni, a small village situated along the side hills that sprout Kerala’s beginning of the Western Ghats, has long stories of revolutionary politics, lush greenery of cashew nut plantations among the contrasting colour of laterite bricks and tells the saga of migration of the most sought after cash crop of the central Travancore. The Madhushree micro enterprise is situated just aside the long asphalt strip that has all the qualities of Rural Keralite road which runs along the hallmark cashew fields of Kasargod district of Kerala. The three-member group unit has been engaged in bee keeping and honey processing since 2011. Smt. Bhagarvi.T serves as the president of the group.

The opportunities of beekeeping and apiculture possibilities of Kayyur Chiemeni was opened up by the Cashew Plantations’ of the Plantation Corporation, the extensiveness of rubber cultivation and its increasing acceptance among local farmers. The sweet taste of stingless home grown honey started flowing in the village due to interventions of Horticorp and Agriculture Office of the village. In 2007, the neighbourhood group to which Anitha, the member of Madhushree Group got trained in apiculture by a training organised by Horticorp and Agriculture department. Nine members of that NHG attended the training and received a kit of basic essentials of setting up two colonies of bees. Since then they were regularly engaged in apiculture and the honey was sold among nearby households. In 2011, due to the intervention of then Micro Enterprises Consultant and Assistant District Mission Coordinator of Kudumbashree, the five major bee keepers were collectivised and formed a group enterprise under Kudumbashree Mission.  The district mission had identified the possibility of collectivising the bee keepers who were managing less than 10 colonies/ bee boxes in their households, such that they could capacitate them for collective production, equip them with common sale points and support them with necessary assistance.

Hence Madhushree, the honey making enterprise of Kudumbashree mission Kasaragod was thus born. The women group took Rs 10,000 each from their respective neighbourhood groups (NHGs) and bought bee boxes, furniture, common branded bottles for the sale of Honey. Kudumbashree Kasargode District Mission, on the other hand had facilitated them for coming up with a brand and provided a shop space in the panchayath Building with the help of Kayyur Chiemeni Panchayath just near the CDS Office block.

Over the course of time, except Anitha the other 8 members who received training in 2007, left apiculture due various reasons such as stings, loss of colonies due to adverse weather etc. Anitha, who found that bees provide her a way of life hurdled through difficulties and continued the journey with buzz sound.  When district mission intervened to group in likeminded bee keepers from the CDS, she also liked the idea of being in group rather than working alone and joined the group.

The training provided by the department at first was one of kind, recollects Anitha. It was a 10 Month training spanning 1-3 days a month conducted at any of trainees homesteads. The training provided on the job training and hands own experience over apiculture, also the knowledge about the year round up keeping of a colony.  Rs. 2 Lakhs was provided as assistance by the bank and the panchayath had given Rs. 90,000 as subsidy over the procurement of bee boxes, extractor, knife, smoker and allied equipments.

The harvesting of the honey is mostly done during the four months spanning from January to April. A colony or a box will be harvested at least 8 times during the season. Anitha testifies that around 25-30 Kg of honey is harvested from one box during the entire season. The honey gathered from boxes is stored in barrels at their respective members’ home. The honey is processed in a water bath to reduce the water content, remove wax and dirt, and to increase the shelf life of honey. The processing of honey is done by members individually at their respective homes after their daily chores of home. Each member will come to the unit/shop/panchayat building as per their turn. Each member will carry the processed honey from their homes and does the packing and bottling at the unit. Only bottling is done at the unit and the rest of product processing is done at individual households. The largest number of bee boxes per person among the group is 45 and the least is 25. They source the bottles from a vendor at Kasargod who supplies bottles as request. They now expend Rs. 7 per bottle of volume of 500 grams and Rs.11 per bottle of volume of 1 kilogram.  According to Anitha, the average sale of Madhushree Honey ranges from Rs 20,000-25,000 per month. The sales channel is mostly contributed by direct sales, Kudumbashree trade fairs. Madhushree also gets frequent orders from a merchant at Thiruvananthapuram who got interested at their product when they participated in a trade fair of Kudumbashree at Thiruvananthapuram. The unit now also procures honey from other farmers to meet the year round demand. On an average this honey unit produces around 2600 kilograms of honey annually. One Kilogram of honey is sold at Rs.250, 500 grams of Honey is sold at Rs.150 and 300 grams of honey would cost Rs.100. Basic calculations show that the Annual Turnover will be around Rs.6,50,000.

Evolution of the unit could only be assessed on how the enterprise has enriched their way of life and improved the quality of life. Formation of a micro enterprise under Kudumbashree has given these women confidence over what they do, to learn that bees would keep their families financially sound and the pride of recognising themselves as an entrepreneur, owner and earner for the family.

At first, learning about the training program from Kudumbashree CDS, Anitha and 8 other women members from their NHG enrolled for the training. All of them completed the 10-month training and with the assistance from panchayath and Agriculture Office, they started maintaining colonies. But in the due course, all of them except Anitha stopped bee keeping. Most of them pointed out challenges they had faced like loss of colonies due rain, cumbersome process of honey processing, stinging of bees, and sustaining colonies in summer and quit apiculture. Besides challenges Anitha continued her journey with bees, in 2011 district mission intervened and gave her likeminded people to carry on that activity. They became a group and that group has been fuel for success. She believes that the relentless, strive to earn and converting hobby-ing and passion to an income generation activity has been the first and foremost reason for their success.

Sustaining bee colonies and maintaining honey boxes requires constant attention and care was the challenge they had to face. Climatic changes really affect this kind of activity, sometimes it’s the rain and sometimes it’s the heat. Constant learning of new techniques and new methods is also very important. Other challenges also included finding markets and developing proper storage facilities.

They believe that the turning point in their aspect was finding themselves for each other. Everything changed when they became a group enterprise and started working together. They had themselves, they built their brand, they help each other and working towards ‘their’ common goal scripted their success.

They are planning to expand their business, by procurement of more raw honey from nearby bee keepers and also intend to setup a processing centre at their unit in the same panchayath building, so that everyone could come together and do the processing together and also increase their capacity. They also wish to setup a storage facility and better the bottling process. And in the due course, they shall also think of taking up a rebranding process.

Once, Dr. Thomas Isaac, Minister of Finance & Coir, Government of Kerala during his visit at the district came across their product. He bought some honey and enquired about their unit. On the next day, he posted his experience with their product on social media platforms.  For them, it was a great recognition for their work and their unit. But their joy multiplied, when one lorry driver came to their unit seeing that social media post. He came to their unit to buy their product. He came to Kasargod on a trip and drove all the way to Kayyur Chiemeni to buy their product. They felt proud, happy and recognised, when people come all the way from the other end of the state to buy from them.

They believe that with some passion and commitment, one can see oneself become the happiest, independent and the significant member of one’s own family. You can see for yourselves, the most hindering factors of your growth becoming the most contributing factor to your success. According to Anitha, she is more than happy to help her fellow Kudumbashree members, if some among them are into beekeeping activity.

Madhushree could be considered as an epitome of unaltered will power and confidence. With a gradual yet steady growth, Madhushree had proved that belief in one’s self could take anyone to greater success. This Micro entrepreneur and her whole team is indeed tasting her success now!