In Stevenson’s village of Nongthymmai, located in BhoiRymbong, beekeeping is an activity that has been practiced for generations. The people of Nongthymmai believe that a house with bees is an active and healthy household. Earlier people would take up beekeeping as a hobby, but now it has become a key income generating activity for many households in the area.
Mr. Stevenson started beekeeping out of passion but soon realised its economic potential. He registered himself at the Umsning EFC to get accurate technical knowledge on beekeeping andwas given training at RRTC in Umran. Upon completion, Stevenson expanded his bee colonies and started extracting more honey than before. He also began packaging his honey and selling them at markets in Nongpoh and in Shillong.
Today Mr. Stevenson earns at least₹1,00,000and up to₹2,00,000 annually through the sale of honey. In fact Mr. Stevenson states that the demand for good quality honey is so high that he is not even able to meet his own local marketdemands. This year he plans to increase hisnumber of bee colonies by 10 or 20 boxes.
The community at Nongthymmai is trying to strengthen its beekeeping activities as a collective.The community has established a beekeepers’ societythroughwhich it aims to scale up honey production, improve packaging and marketing of honey, and even start producing honey-based value added products. Mr. Stevenson himself is hopeful that with the launch of the Apiculture Mission in the State, he and his community members will be able to access a wider platform on which to market and sell their honey, and profitably carry on this livelihood activity that has been passed down across generations.