Srinagar, Feb. 12 -- The bees of Jammu and Kashmir are literally busy rewriting the farmers' fortunes. With a 77% increase in honey production in three years, beekeeping is now a thriving business in J&K, courtesy rich returns and government backing. The government said that the production of honey has increased by over 77% in the past three years taking it currently to 3,895 MT. "Honey production has risen sharply from 2,200 MT to over 3,895 MT in the last three years, placing J&K among the country's leading honey producers," lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha had said in his inaugural speech of the J&K assembly session. The recently released economic survey report of the J&K government also informed that the production increased 48% from 2023-24 to 2024-25. "Honey production also saw an increase of 48% from 17701 Qtls (866.46 MT) in 2023-24 to 26301 Qtls (1287.43 MT) in 2024-25," the report stated. With four kinds of organic varieties of honey particularly in the Himalayan valley, the nectar collected by the bees from the flowers in the meadows, orchards, forests and gardens is considered amongone of the finest across the globe and fetches anywhere from Rs.80,000 to 1.5 lakh per quintal. A resident of Baramulla in north Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, said that his economic situation transformed after he started bee-keeping in 2014. He said that he started with two bee colonies which have now increased to 165 colonies which he established with the help of the agriculture department. "My honey production from the colony ranges around two quintals fetching me around 2 lakhs. And this one can do while performing all the other activities of horticulture or agriculture," he said. Honey can be harvested multiple times in a year by migrating the colonies to different states depending on the weather and flower and herb growth. "Currently, my colonies are in Rajasthan and then they will be brought to Jammu before transferring them to Kashmir in April," he said. He said that the government's apiculture development schemes coupled with good returns on honey production are pushing the youth towards apiculture. "Earlier people would do bee-keeping as a hobby but now youth think of it as a business option particularly those who are landless as it doesn't need much land like horticulture or agriculture," he said. "Besides the roles bees play in pollination makes it an eco-friendly option," he said. Officials say that the increase in production of honey was triggered by various schemes including National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM), the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), and the Holistic Agriculture Development Program (HADP) of J&K. "The bee colonies in J&K have increased to over 2.27 lakh in 2024-25, an increase of 72% from 2018-19, with around 5000 bee-keepers across the union territory," an official of the agricultural department said. In Kashmir, there are around 96,000 registered bee colonies. The consumption of honey has also increased locally with more varieties in the market at competitive rates....