Savoring the Sweet Honey from Jambi Farmers amid Pandemic

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

A honey farmer in an acacia forest area in Sarolangun District, Jambi.

It is not just the tongue that savors the sweet taste of natural honey. The Covid-19 pandemic that has dealt a severe blow to the world economy has instead led to a sweet outcome for the honey farmers of Jambi, who have made a bumper harvest during the Indonesian outbreak.

Samsul, 50, can now breathe a sigh of relief. Over the last three months, his bees have been his livelihood. Every day, he is becoming more engaged in caring for the wild colonies of Western honeybees (Apis mellifera) that live in the forest of mangium trees (Acacia mangium) that surround his home in Sarolangun, Jambi.

The abundant sources of pollen and nectar in the forest have boosted the bees’ honey production. “We can harvest honey once every ten days,” Samsul, who is a member of the Jambi Sarang Tawon Honey Farmers Group, said on Wednesday (3/6/2020).

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The news about the bumper honey crop has spread rapidly, with many rubber farmers now shifting to cultivating honey. The plummeting price of rubber latex has further prompted the switch from rubber to honey.

As a result, the beekeeping business is growing fast. The number of artificial hives, which originally totaled about 400 wooden boxes, has now expanded to around 4,000 boxes. These artificial are managed by some 2,700 farmers who work in six groups.

The business produces 12 to 14 tons of wild honey per month for a monthly revenue that can reach up to Rp 1 billion.

Samsul earns an individual income of almost Rp 2 million per month from the honey he harvests from eight artificial hives. This is four times the monthly income of Rp 500,000 he earned as a rubber tapper.

“Moreover, the price of rubber is dropping even further. A kilogram costs Rp 5,000,” he said.

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KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

Apis mellifera bee colonies are clustered in cultivation boxes.

Conservation

Apart from reducing the welfare impacts from the epidemic, cultivating honey contributes to conservation efforts. Bees need flowering plants to collect the nectar and pollen they use to make honey, so maintaining the diversity of the forest ecosystem for their bees means that the bee farmers are contributing to forest conservation.

The condition today is very different from the not-so-distant past, when intense land disputes raged in the area. Widespread forest squatting prevailed during the last five years, with the settlers clearing the forest to harvest wood and wood products. They also built new villages in the forest.

Their presence gave rise to a conflict of interest with PT Agronusa Alam Sejahtera (AAS), who held the concession to the industrial forest (HTI). The squatters had occupied 70 percent of the 32,500-hectare forest concession of acacia and Chinese albizia (Albizia chinensis) trees.

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Over the years, the land dispute drained the energy of both parties. They arrived at the turning point two years ago, when a farmer visited the forest concession management to ask for permission to cultivate honey in the acacia forest.

That farmer was Ulil Albab. According to Ulil, he made the visit because the honey farm he had previously established on an oil palm plantation had proved unproductive. The bee colonies grew, but did not produce a proportional amount of honey. After looking into the matter, Ulil discovered that the cause was the minimum amount of nectar that palm flowers produced. On the other hand, the palm flowers provided an abundance of pollen, which bees need to reproduce and maintain the population of their colonies.

Also read : Farmers Hard Hit by Pandemic

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

Apis mellifera bee colonies are clustered in cultivation boxes.

Firman Purba, the district manager of PT AAS, welcomed Ulil’s proposal to relocate his honey farm to the acacia forest. So Ulil moved his 43 artificial hives with their apian residents. The bee colonies seemed to respond immediately to the forest’s plentiful sources of nectar, and his honey production began to soar.

The outcome was the development of the acacia forest as a center of honey cultivation. Other farmers were given the same opportunity.

“We gave space to those who wished to develop honey farms. While aiming to promote welfare, we were convinced that the farmers would join the effort to protect the forest from harm,” said Firman.

The existence of HTIs, especially acacia monoculture concession areas, has raised controversy in various regions. A 2016 report by the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) titled “Impacts of industrial tree plantations in Indonesia” noted that HTI development was frequently beset by several characteristic problems.

We gave space to those who wished to develop honey farms.

An inquiry into the response of communities near HTIs discovered that local residents generally held a negative perception of concession areas. The heart of this perception was that the residents regarded HTI developments as the entrance of external parties to control local lands.

Indonesia had issued a huge amount of HTI licenses, with the government granting more than 250 concessions totaling more than 10 million hectares to develop industrial forests. Their development almost always creates conflict with local communities, while monoculture is perceived as denying any opportunity for the local people to participate in land management.

The optimal involvement of local communities in forest management can in fact provide a solution for settling these conflicts. The local people can develop their honey business alongside the concession holders’ goal to cultivate trees on their industrial plantations.

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

One of the honey cultivators in an acacia forest area in Sarolangun District, Jambi.

Based on data from the National Apiary Center, honeybee cultivation can develop optimally with the food source supplied by a monoculture industrial forest of Acacia mangium. This plant species can even regenerate wild bee populations.

Kuntadi, a bee researcher at the Forestry Research and Development Agency, published a paper in Sylva Tropika journal in 2003 that referred to the diverse sources of food for honeybees that Indonesian forests produced. These include fruit trees, vegetable crops, industrial plants and forest plants.

The flowers of these plants contain the nectar and pollen that bees need to make honey, and thus influence honey production. Around 25,000 species of flowering plants flourish in Indonesian forests. The great diversity of plant species provides a year-round supply of nectar and pollen for honeybee colonies. Sadly, information about these plants has not been widely disseminated.

Research by the Human Nutrition and Food Science Division of Florida University into the benefits of acacia honey has found that honey made from Acacia mangium nectar contains minerals and vitamins like B1, B6, B2, B3 and C that help boost stamina, immunity and brain function, improves the skin and is also good for heart health.

Managing bees and harvesting their honey is helping to resolve industrial forestry conflict settlement while assisting farmers during the epidemic

Jambi Provincial Forestry Office head Ahmad Bestari said that honey cultivation could provide a middle path to resolve industrial forestry conflicts. Farmers who live in forest areas could benefit greatly while playing a role in conservation efforts at the same time. Therefore, honeybee farms would be developed in other conflict-stricken concession areas.

Jambi honey farmers group executive Subarjo said that its farmers were dedicated to develop honey cultivation. Furthermore, the market for their honey was wide and open. The number of people turning to honey for immune system health had even been increasing during the ongoing outbreak.

In the end, managing bees and harvesting their honey is helping to resolve industrial forestry conflict settlement while assisting farmers during the epidemic.