New Delhi, March, 2021.

India’s leading Science-based Ayurveda major Dabur India Ltd. today announced the launch of ‘Project Madhu, an initiative to promote beekeeping or Apiculture as a lucrative enterprise for farmers and small and medium entrepreneurs. As part of the initiative, Dabur is working with local Non Profit Organizations across three states to create an ecosystem that will bring together technical know-how, financing and access to market-place for these farmers and entrepreneurs to train and sustain them in the vocation of bee keeping. It is estimated that through the right interventions, India has the potential to increase its honey production capacity from the current 3.4 Million Bee Colonies  - 1.20 Lakh Mt  to  200 Million Bee Colonies – 70 Lakh Mt.

As a part of this campaign, Dabur aims at providing as many as 5600 bee-boxes to farmers which is expected to positively impact the socio-economic situation of 350 families in the states of Jharkhand and Assam. Apart from this, in Bihar 2250 families being benefitted through World Bank Aided Jeevika Project which attained  23500 box distribution. Along with the bee-boxes, technical knowledge would also be provided through trainings by Dabur India’s Bio-Resource Development team at village, block and district levels. The team aims at providing 360 number of trainings by 2025.

Dabur India has collaborated with leading Indian NGOs like Jeevika BRLPS (Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society) in Bihar, Vikas Bharti in Jharkhand and Institute of Integrated Resource Management (IIRM) in Assam and conducted dialogues with more than 350 beekeepers in these 3 states. The company would continue to associate with similar NGOs to continue to reach out to the bee-keepers across Indian states at the grass-root level and raise momentum for this campaign. Through the campaign, Dabur would give a fillip to indigenous produce and its marketing to strengthen the agricultural economy.

Talking about the launch of the campaign, Mr. Prashant Agarwal, Marketing Head- Health Supplements, Dabur India Ltd said, “Project Madhu has been conceptualized to give momentum to Dabur’s ambition of making the bee-keeper community in India more self-reliant, self-sustaining and more scientific in its approach. We have been working in this direction for several years. However, with Project Madhu, we want to fortify our efforts and reach out to a wider audience across the country. The idea for us is to collaborate with government and private stakeholders and bring to life, a ‘honey corridor’ across the select states, which would look at contributing positively to the welfare of the farmers and the nation at large.”

The campaign, Project Madhu is being brought to life by the Bio-Resource Development team at Dabur India Ltd. Speaking on the initiative, Dr. Pankaj Raturi, Head of Bio-Resource Development team at Dabur, said, “Beekeeping, as an enterprise, fits well with small scale farmers across the country and helps them earn additional income. It has the potential to provide employment, income and economic security for their family and others in rural areas. At Dabur, we are committed to making requisite skills available to the targeted communities and provide them assistance to create a sustainable source of income in the long term.”