krishnan
State: Kerala
District/Block Name: Wayanad
Occupation: Honey collection
Twenty years back, when Krishnan started the honey collection at Wayanad at Kerala, little did he know that he would set up 500 colonies one day and would export honey to Gujarat as well.
“I had studied only until 10th, so I didn’t know what to do and couldn’t find any other job also. Which is when I came across the honey collection as a concept, today we also produce other products using honey such as honey wax, honey cream, balm, honey ice cream, and honey cola as well,” said Krishnan.
Krishnan got into the occupation of the honey collection because he attended one of the training conducted by the Agricultural department of the Kerala government. Today, he has converted it into a family business as his wife, brother and sister-in-law join him in the honey collection, honeybee breeding, and making tools used for honey collection.
Despite his family being from an agricultural background, Krishnan decided to opt for honey collection because he believes that people do not opt for ‘risky jobs’.
“There are very few people who would opt for a honey collection as a profession because it is risky, usually people prefer non-risky jobs. I choose the honey collection because it is risky. I accessed the market and there weren’t too many people who were into honey collection then, which is why I was determined to take the risk,” says Krishnan, as he proudly speaks about his profession.
Krishnan adds that because he comes from Kerala, he also believes in being one with nature, which is why he always wanted to opt for a profession where he could work with nature.
“We are not causing any harm to nature as bee collection is a natural process. In fact, this process initiates the idea of living in harmony with nature. I choose honey collection because I wanted to preserve nature,” Krishnan adds.
Ask him how has his journey been over the years, he adds that he now trains people who want to take up the honey collection as a profession, through the same platform where he was trained and decided to take up the honey collection as a profession.
He has currently trained 20,000 people until now and continues to train people through the Centre for Youth Development (CYD) of the Agriculture department of Kerala in honeybee breeding as well.
While Krishnan was training people at the village level until now, over the last few months he has been conducting training on the state level.