journal of renewable natural resources bhutan - Ministry of Agriculture

cattle contributes to the household cash. About 10 percent of farmfamilies sell aracanut. Some 13 percent of farmers, who don't havemandarin orchards or aracanut, engage in daily wage off-farmactivities to meet household income. Ginger and rice are sold by somefarmers for cash while 29 percent of the farmers don't have any readysource of income. They could be poorer than others in a community.BeekeepingBeekeeping tradition and use of honeyBeekeeping has been a long tradition in most of the households in thestudy area with 62 percent of the households keeping bees for honeyproduction. However, keeping honey bee is only a part-time job as onlyeffort made is to make hives, clean them before the arrival of migratingbee and harvest honey periodically.Table 1. Income sourcesN. B. TamangNo cash incomesource29%Mandarin &livestock10%Off farm13%Mandarinorchard35%Aracanut10%Ginger & Rice3%MandarinorchardAracanutGinger & RiceOff farmMandarin &livestockNo cashincome sourceHoney is long recognized by local people as medicine to cure sorethroat; chicken pox, stomach pain, foot and mouth disease of livestock,wound and so on. Some honey is always retained at home to treatcommon ailments. ICAR (1990) mentioned that Indian system ofmedicine belonging to both Ayurvedha and Sidha extensively usehoney as a vehicle for drugs. Further, Dorji and Tshering (1999)30