By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 01, 2020: MIGRANT workers distressed due to the pandemic and engaged with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)'s Honey Mission in Uttar Pradesh, reaped their first honey harvest and are awaiting a bumper yield in the months from December to March.

According to the KVIC, to begin with, five migrant workers in Western UP's Muzaffarnagar district extracted 253 kg of honey from their 50 honeybee boxes.

Raw honey sells at an average of Rs 200 per kg and at this rate it is estimated to fetch nearly Rs 50,000 to the migrant workers. This means an average income of Rs 10,000 to each of these beneficiaries. A total of 700 bee boxes were distributed to 70 migrant workers after training by KVIC in this region.

The production of honey and the workers' incomes will increase manifold during the months from December to March as the eucalyptus and mustard crops will be in full bloom during the season, KVIC said.

KVIC had responded to the Prime Minister's call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and engaged hundreds of returned migrant workers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in its flagship schemes like the Honey Mission, Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana and Project DigniTEA among others.