CASE STUDY

‘Devbhumi’
Making a sweet buzz with
Organic Honeyin
Uttarakhand
Albert Einstein once quoted that “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the
globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more
pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Sandeep Rawat
tells a success story of beekeeping from Uttarakhand

E instein’s remark
fairly sums up the
importance of
bees for human
civilization, it
also alarms us against our role
in disturbing nature’s harmony.
These bees not only play an
important role in pollinating
the plants but also in creation
of honey that is widely used for
commercial production and human
consumption. Uttarakhand, known

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 CASE STUDY

as Devbhumi, has moved ahead in

beekeeping and interestingly rural
women producers are bringing
sweetness to the lives of thousands
of households in Garhwal region
of the state. It brings the classic
case of how a local enterprise with
professional support is helping in
transforming the lives of thousands
of rural women both socially and
economically.

Garhwal Himalayas of
Uttarakhand
Facing the majestic snow-covered
peaks of Mt. Chaukhamba in
Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand
is situated a fairly large town
known as Guptakashi which
has emerged a major hub for
beekeeping business in the state.
The region, blessed with densely
populated flora and fauna, attracts
Apis cerana indica, commonly
known as Indian honey bees.
These indigenous species of honey
bees are considered as relatively
non aggressive and rarely exhibit
swarming behavior, which makes
them ideal for bee keeping.
Traditional beekeeping and
fragmented production
Beekeeping has been a traditional
activity of many households since
ages. Warmth of the traditionally
made hill houses in the relatively
cold weather of mountains has
always attracted bees to create their
colonies near human habitation.
While the local women have been
indulged in beekeeping since ages
and selling it in local markets,
its commercialisation and their
linkages with market has always
been a matter of concern for them.
This fragmented production in the
region and its unorganized sales
have led to poor price realization
Beekeeping has been
a traditional activity
of many households
since ages. Warmth
of the traditionally
made hill houses in
the relatively cold
weather of mountains
has always attracted
bees to create their
colonies near human
habitation
for these honey producers.
Traditionally they have been selling
this honey to local shopkeepers or
the pilgrimage tourists who come
to them for purchasing honey
during the char dham yatra season.
This unpredictable sale was a
demotivating factor for them to
take honey production seriously as
a regular livelihood opportunity.
Also, the fragmented production
was a major hindrance for
promoting this pure organic honey
as a branded product in the urban
centers like Delhi.
In urban centers, organic
honey is in huge demand among
the consumers due to its health
benefits and medicinal properties.
The gap between the fragmented
producers’ base in the remote hills
and the affluent consumers’ base
in the urban places was seen as
an opportunity to create a rural
enterprise with decentralized
production and centralised
processing and marketing. With the
aim of conserving the Himalayan
ecosystem and at the same time
promoting rural livelihood for
women in these remote hills, this
seemed as a perfect opportunity for
developing an enterprise that can
procure honey from remote hills
and market this honey to urban
consumers.

www.ruralmarketing.in MARCH 2017 | RURAL & MARKETING | 33

 CASE STUDY

Devbhumi Natural Producer

Company Ltd.
Devbhumi Natural Product
Producer Company Ltd (DNPPCL),
popularly known as ‘Devbhumi’,
was evolved from the merger of
two community owned private
limited companies namely Chamoli
Tasar Pvt. Ltd. and Devbhumi
Madhu Pvt. Ltd, in the year 1995.
It was promoted with the help
of Appropriate Technology India
(ATI), a development organization
which has been working in this
region since the year 1993.
ATI promotes the forest based
enterprise development with
an aim to provide economic
security to local forest dependent
communities. Apart from its
independent interventions in
the area of creating livelihood
generating activities in this hill
state, it acts as a strong grass root
organization that provides a base
support to ‘Devbhumi’ in reaching
remote valleys and villages of this
region. Its strong presence and Today the organisation is has attracted them towards an
grass root mobilization has enabled completely owned by small and enterprise based development
‘Devbhumi’ to reach many remote marginal farmers, primarily by model.
villages for its honey procurement. rural women of Uttarakhand. Its
strong producer’s base is around Decentralised production and
Farmer Producer Company Model 8500 shareholders, who are Centralised Marketing
Farmer Producer Company (FPC) scattered in remote villages across ‘Devbhumi’ is one of the first
model, which is distinctly different 5 districts of Uttarakhand namely Producer Companies in the state.
from that of cooperative model, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Pauri, It has developed brand visibility
helps in gaining autonomy to Tehri and Uttarkashi. Apart from & identity under the brand name
these cooperative entities which the shareholders base, Devbhumi ‘Devbhumi’. It has pioneered in
helps them to get freedom today procures its produce from decentralized community-owned
from bureaucratic control and additional 2500 primary producers. production and processing.
politicisation of these organizations The company has expanded its Promoters feel that economies of
by elite members. What makes this product range from organic honey scale of a rural enterprise can only
organization special is that it is to organic spices, Tasar and other be achieved when an enterprise
one of India’s first farmer producer forest based silks along with the operates on the principles of
companies and the very first of its recent initiative of milk production cooperation among the producers.
kind in Uttarakhand. Working on and marketing in Gupkashi region. The organisation has been making
this model, each primary producer This intervention has not only led all efforts to promote organic
of ‘Devbhumi’ is a shareholder and in creation of economic stability certified honey and to create a
the owner of the company. among the producers but also niche market for Uttarakhand

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organic honey nationwide.
“After getting a phenomenal
response and feedback from the
customers, we initiated organic
processing in Dehradun and
marketing at the affluent urban
centers of Delhi/NCR. Today
‘Devbhumi’ operates at three
levels. It first procures the organic
honey from the hills where it has
a strong producer base, and then
the raw honey is brought to its
state of art processing facility in
Dehradun and from there it is
packaged and marketed in urban
centers nationwide,” says Amrish
Khurana, Chief General Manager,
‘Devbhumi’.
First certified organic honey
producer
In 2003-04, the organisation
became the first certified organic
honey producer in the country
and was recognised by fair trade
federation of America. It has now
approximately 1000 ha land
under organic certification by
the Uttarakhand State organic
Certification Agency (USOCA)
which is accredited by APEDA.
A total of 2966 farmers have
been certified through a group
certification scheme that have
commercially produced and
marketed more than 31500 kg of
honey in year 2015-16.
“The recognition as first
www.ruralmarketing.in
Over the years of
selling raw and
minimum processed
organic honey to
buyers, ‘Devbhumi’
realized that there is
a market out there
for organic honey
which gave them the
courage to produce
honey under their
own brand name
certified organic honey producer
provided the much needed boost
to business. Now we are marketing
our product under the brand name-
Devbhumi Certified Organic
Honey. There is a huge demand
of pure organic honey in urban
centres. Since we procure their
honey straight from the Himalayan
Mountains which signifies purity,
its demand and response among
the consumers is quite good,” adds
Khurana.
Rakesh Dhirwan, who is
production manager (Bee keeping
vertical) for ‘Devbhumi’ explains
that Organic certification for honey
is a very time taking, expensive
and a complex process.
It takes almost three years
to certify a land as completely
organic here and this certification
can be cancelled any time if the
product is found not to be pure
by the monitoring officials. Hence
adding these many producers as
completely organically certified
and maintaining the quality
over the years have been quite a
remarkable task for a considerably
smaller organisation like
‘Devbhumi’.
CASE STUDY
Linking honey producers to
market: A Challenge
Jack Croucher, Founder, ATI and
senior advisor at ‘Devbhumi’ says
“While the value chain of honey
production is comparatively much
simpler, except from the part where
you have to replace the traditional
wall hives with improved bee hive
production practices, linking these
primary producers to market was
the biggest challenge.”
Over the years of selling raw
and minimum processed organic
honey to buyers, ‘Devbhumi’
realised that there is a market out
there for organic honey which
gave them the courage to produce
honey under own brand name.
Future markets and expansion
The current market analysis
and response has motivated
‘Devbhumi’ to expand in urban
markets of southern India from
where they are getting good
response for their certified organic
honey. Croucher says that they are
in the process of exporting their
certified organic honey to some
regions of United Kingdom.
The organisation is trying to
increase its current producers’
base in the region by involving
more honey producers from
different districts of Uttarakhand
and tapping to some good honey
making clusters of Kumaun region.
The organization believes that
capacity building of small and
marginal producers of the region
and providing the improved
ways of production through
technological intervention is the
way forward for strengthening the
supply side of the market.
(Author is a Research
Scholar at Mudra Institute of
Communications-Ahmadabad)
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