Empowering Beekeepers, Building a Golden Revolution
Explore the world of bees and see how Humble Bee is transforming rural and forest-dwelling communities through sustainable beekeeping.
Explore our journey, impact, and the vibrant community of beekeepers who are making a difference.
In 2022 and 2023, we traveled to 14 states in India, met over 500 small-scale beekeepers, and discovered the challenges they face and why they consider beekeeping unviable.
An average beekeeper harvests honey only twice a year, during crop blooms, and often finds it unviable to migrate their few colonies due to a lack of blooming information. As a result, the yield per hive per season remains among the lowest in India and globally.
UN/UNDER-TRAINED
Beekeepers in India are fragmented, with small landholdings in deep rural and tribal areas. They lack scientific beekeeping training and often cannot identify or resolve hive issues, diseases, and pests.
POOR INPUT SUPPLY
They buy poorly fabricated hives made of mango and other types of wood, which irritate bees, make them prone to diseases, reduce colony strength, and cause heavy metal contamination in the honey.
POOR ECONOMICS
Beekeepers receive paltry sums from honey traders, who then process and heat the unripened nectar to produce the homogenized golden "honey" we see on store shelves.
UNETHICAL HARVESTING
Most untrained beekeepers extract unsealed, unripened, watery nectar from the brood chambers, which kills larvae and eggs.
We delved deeper and learned how bees are crucial for the planet.
Increased Food Security
CLIMATE-CHANGE RESILIENCE
Improved Crop Variability
A single honeybee visits up to 5000 flowers in a day, enhancing nature’s overall pollination process.
A Healthy Bee Population
CLIMATE-CHANGE MITIGATION
Bees pollinate over 75% of the world's food crops, ensuring availability of food for us.
Leads to more Pollination
Enhanced Carbon Sequestration
More crop yield & biodiversity
Bee-pollinated fruits, nuts, and vegetables, are more abundant, often larger and more uniform in shape.
CLIMATE-CHANGE ADAPTATION
Boosts agro-economy & livelihoods
Encourages bee-friendly agriculture practices
Bees boost crop yields by 15-200% and promote the production of more abundant, rounder, and uniform fruits.
Indian farms are largely under-pollinated.
The total area of bee-dependent crops in the country is approximately 60 million hectares.
For optimal pollination, 200 million bee colonies are required.
However, we currently only have 3.4 million colonies in the country.
We decided to build a solution stack and turn this into a movement for livelihoods and gender empowerment.
We began by learning beekeeping!
We underwent training in scientific beekeeping by attending several programs and institutions such as the Central Bee Research Training Institute (CBRTI), learning from global experts, and delving deep into the world of bees!
APIMONDIA 2023 IN CHILE
Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations, and other organizations have been working within the apiculture sector since 1895. In September 2023, in our endeavor to understand the global beekeeping and honey ecosystem, we attended Apimondia in Chile. There, we had the opportunity to meet apiculturists from over 80 countries and gained numerous global insights.
Cluster Design
A cluster approach involves initiating intervention in any community with a minimum viable strength. We intervene once a cluster reaches 25 interested enthusiasts.
With a vision to create self-sustaining and empowered communities of beekeepers in rural and forest areas, we developed a cluster model of intervention.
Every cluster operates cohesively, sharing a common facility center and being serviced by our designated cadre workers.
We were honored to be among the top 5 global startups selected by CGIAR's ICTforAg Inspire Challenge 2023 for our potential to provide tailored services and information to women beekeepers, thereby increasing their climate resilience.
We are thrilled to announce that we won the Climate Smart Business Challenge Facility by Aga Khan Foundation and GIZ for our efforts in developing climatic resilience among beekeepers through the innovative use of technology and personalized support.
We received support from the Incubator for Social Enterprises and Entrepreneurs for Development (ISEED) at IRMA as part of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS).
We established our first Honey Aggregation and Processing Unit at Hirehalli in association with KVK Tumkur.
Precision-Engineered Beehives
For enhanced Hive Productivity, Harvest Quality & Colony Health
INSTITUTE OF WOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
We are incubated at and supported by the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), ICFRE (Malleswaram, Bangalore), where we are fabricating precision-engineered hives for the world.
SCAN TO KNOW THE CRITICAL ROLE OF BEEBOXES
We are grateful to RIIDL, Somaiya Vidyavihar, for supporting the development of hives as part of the NIDHI PRAYAAS Scheme.
We developed the
BEEKIND app
as a trusted companion to empower beekeepers in rural and forest areas with appropriate scientific knowledge and better hive management practices, aimed at improving harvest quantity and quality.
Vernacular
We leverage BHASHINI for Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech, and vice versa, to ensure a seamless experience for beekeepers.
AI-Powered Decision Support
Whether it's hive inspection, disease diagnosis, migration management, or other key decisions, we harness the power of AI to drive them.
Community and Expert Connect
We have made it easier for beekeepers to connect with their peers and experts, facilitating sharing, troubleshooting, and building camaraderie.
We WON the BIRAC BIG 2023 Grant!
Biotechnology Ignition Grant Scheme (BIG) by BIRAC was awarded to us for our potential to leverage technology for improving the productivity of the beekeeping landscape.
🌟 Thrilled to announce that we have been selected as a finalist for the Meta Llama for Social Impact Program Grant! 🌟
Early this month, we had the incredible opportunity to participate in the Llama Impact Grant workshop hosted by Meta Platforms Inc. in NYC! It was inspiring to join forces with 19 other finalist organizations from around the globe, all driven by a shared commitment to social impact and innovation.
OUR FOOTPRINT
We are working across deep evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, tiger reserves, and natural farming clusters, collaborating with over 1000 landless and small-landholding farmers and forest-dwellers.
VARANASI (NSDC, NRLM & PRIF)
Empowering 200 women farmers to get skilled in scientific beekeeping, unlock SHG loans and subsidies, input supplies, BEEKIND app, buy-back
VALMIKI TIGER RESERVE (WWF)
Empowering 60 women from forest fringe communities with scientific beekeeping training, hive inputs, BEEKIND app and buy-back
BARABANKI (THOUGHTWORKS TECHNOLOGIES)
Enabling 200 women in Barabanki with scientific beekeeping training, wax processing and value-addition
KHUNTI (CiNi CELL, TATA TRUSTS)
Empowering 50 women across 2 remote rural clusters with scientific beekeeping training, hive inputs, BEEKIND app, Community Facility Centre and buy-back
JHARKHAND-ODISHA BORDER (UNICEF)
Empowering 500 beekeepers across forest and rural clusters with scientific beekeeping training, inputs, BEEKIND app, Community Facility Centre and buy-back
KALI TIGER RESERVE (STATE FOREST DEPARTMENT)
Empowering 170 women from Kunabi households with scientific beekeeping training, hive inputs, BEEKIND app, Common Facility Center and buy-back
ICAR-IIHR & KVK TUMKUR
Empowering 100 farmers with 1000 hives, scientific beekeeping training, hive inputs, BEEKIND app, Common Facility Center and buy-back
Collaborating with small farmer communities in Jamnagar, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and Sundarbans Mangrove Forest
Our journey is accelerated by
Dignified livelihoods accelerator
Among the top 8 startups selected for Dignified Livelihoods Accelerator (by Upaya VC and Yunus Social Business)
LAND ACCELERATOR SOUTH ASIA
Among the top 15 climate-tech startups selected by Land Accelerator South Asia (WRI and Sangam.VC)
Low carbon earth accelerator
Among the top 15 startups selected by Low Carbon Earth Accelerator (Massive Earth Foundation and UNEP)
Circulead by EU-REI, GIZ, Unlock Impact, Nushu Network
Among the 10 selected cohort members as part of the Circulead acceleration program
Our work in pictures
CONSTRUCTION OF MUDHIVES AT SCALE
Mudhives, with their natural construction materials and design, contribute to colony resilience by providing a suitable microclimate and environment for bees. Studies have shown that colonies in such structures exhibit resilience to environmental stressors like temperature fluctuations and pests, thereby ensuring the long-term health of bee populations. This reduces disease incidence among bees, helps manage colony size, and reduces swarming tendencies.
(In the picture, mudhive experts from Himachal Pradesh are seen training beekeepers in Kali Tiger Reserve on the construction aspects.)
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
The VISION WE CARRY
At Humble Bee Honey, our mission is to revolutionize and transform the Honey Culture, placing India on the global map as the Honey Nation. We passionately believe in reshaping the honey experience by promoting ethical extraction, empowering small beekeepers, and celebrating the extraordinary flavors that nature has bestowed upon us.
We envisions a revolutionary transformation of the global beekeeping ecosystem, one that not only ensures the survival of honeybees and pollinators but also safeguards our environment, promotes economic prosperity, and enhances community well-being.
Our tech-and-touch end-to-end model of the beekeeping value chain, spanning from training to cluster development, and from input supplies to market linkage, is designed to derisk any beekeeper. We operate at the intersection of agroecology, rural/tribal economy, gender empowerment, and climate change mitigation.
We are deeply humbled by the journey we've embarked upon. These are just the first steps in our vision for India to blossom into the Honey Capital of the world. Our dream extends to cultivating thousands of sustainable livelihoods and achieving a balance between a thriving economy and a flourishing ecology.
At this stage, we are actively seeking catalytic support to fuel our mission. We're also looking for passionate individuals to join our team and contribute meaningfully to our cause. Your support, ideas, insights, or connections are invaluable to us. Let’s create a buzz and transform the apiculture landscape in India!
With gratitude,
