Bees bring honey and money to poor villages north of Mumbai

A micro agricultural intervention in Maharashtra impoverished Palghar district is helping villagers fight unseasonal rain and other crop eroding surprises. More than 1500 villagers, mostly women, across over 100 villages in this Warli tribal belt, now own B boxes, enabling a window of relief from chronic family alcoholism and erratic daily wage living. Further north in Gujarat, another 3000 villagers have become enthusiastic. Be caretakers. The small revolution in this part of Western India started some five years ago when Vijaya Pastala, a Mumbai based entrepreneur who has specialized in rural livelihoods, started a non government organization called Under the Mango Tree Society to resist both climate change and mono cultivation which is impacting agricultural patterns across the country. Her dream is to put a bee box in every small farm in India. Where anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 bees would subsist, her focus was not as much on honey production as it was on increasing local agricultural yields for marginal farmers. The role of the bee in our food production is nothing short of extraordinary, say agricultural experts. About 70% of fruits, vegetables, nuts and oil seeds depend on pollinators and these are under great threat. The impact.