I am Jatindar, a beekeeper from Haryana. There, I run Virk Honey Farm and have been working with bees for over eight years with the simple aim of bringing pure honey as made by the bees.
Being born and brought up in a family of farmers and surrounded by people having the same lifestyle as mine, I could never think of myself any differently. But when Beeyond's team approached me, asking for my story, I realized how much there was to tell about me, my people, and beekeeping as a profession.
After completing my graduation in mechanical engineering, I made an all-out effort to get a reputable job but was only disappointed in the end. With five people to feed and responsibilities to bear, I couldn't sit at home. So I took an underpaid job. But soon I realized that if I wanted to make a decent living, I had to start something of my own. Then one of my friends suggested that I take a beekeeping training course at Punjab Agricultural University. There I got introduced to the science of beekeeping. Being from an agricultural background, that intrigued me immensely. There, I learned how bees and the method of pollination help in increasing agricultural yield, and most importantly, I could count on it as a potential livelihood option.
Now when I take a stroll down the memory lane, from the time of December 2014, when I started with only five bee boxes, to today, when I have more than a thousand bee boxes. Moreover, taking inspiration from my journey, many others also took up the profession, and currently there are 45 more people in my village practicing beekeeping.
But the journey, though rewarding, was full of challenges. The big players in the market don't want people like us to sustain in the business. They don't want people to know the difference between pure honey and adulterated ones. The one they sell behind those delusive labels. You think you're taking a step towards good health, but in the name of honey, you're just consuming sugar and corn syrup. Moreover, the reduction in flora density and the rampant use of pesticides are leading to massive deaths of honeybees. So I request that you all be extremely wise when choosing your honey. Because it not only affects your health but also has many substantial impacts on the environment and the whole community of bees as well as beekeepers like us.
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