Title : Problems being faced by Honey producers in Southern States of the country.
SHRI A.V. BELLARMIN (NAGERCOIL): Sir, the small scale producers and traders of honey in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and certain hilly regions of Kerala are languishing in lurch for their daily bread.
The statistics reveal the pathos of the story. In Kanyakumari district alone, nearly 25 lakh kilograms is being produced every year. The only cooperative society in the district for purchase of honey can procure only three lakh kilograms. Even that is stagnating as there are no takers for honey. The absence of storage facilities and marketability are haunting nearly one lakh of people who are engaged in production and related activities, directly and indirectly, and the situation is driving them to the verge of poverty. So, it is high time that the Government should contemplate seriously in the matter of fixing the minimum support price for honey; importantly, propagating the utility value of honey as a health promoter; and exploring the possibility for wider marketability of honey, which can be used as an ingredient in indigenous medicines, promoting honey-mixed and processed soft drinks, selling honey and honey-mixed products through the public distribution shops and adding honey as a menu in Government feasts and functions and serving it in flights.
The Directorate of Khadi and Village Industries may suitably be introduced to propagate the utility value of honey and create wider marketability, thus saving the people from starvation and it should procure all the honey stagnated in Kanyakumari and in Kerala.