I am Narpinder Singh Dhaliwal from Village Chuharchak in Moga District of Punjab. I am 42 years old and there are 9 family members in my family including me. My father is an ex-army man and he started bee keeping with 5 boxes in 1997. In 1994, I was working at a measly salary of Rs. 1150 per month and could barely meet the ends meet. I decided to quit my job and take over the honey bee keeping business started by my father. Today by the grace of god and blessings of my father along with my hard work and family support I have over 1000 boxes of bees. In order to manage them properly I have employed 6 helpers as well. Today, I market the honey directly to the consumers and also sell it through Kisan Hut in Mandi Board Ajitwal. I also sell it via commission based system. I took the basic training for bee keeping from Agriculture Department, Moga and advanced training from PAU. In 2016 I had a chance to visit Europe and learned about latest methods in bee keeping.
I have recently started packaging Pollen and marketing it. It is turning out to be really profitable. I plan to start marketing it on large scale soon. I have also started making Royal Jelly and it is also proving to be a successful product. Although the honey that I sell is fetching good prices but I feel that the government should bring in policies to encourage local farmers as we cannot compete with big companies which are selling low quality honey at higher prices. In near future I want to start with Apitherapy, about which I learned in Europe and I also want to convert my farm into a model farm, which can attract tourists and farming enthusiasts. Besides bee keeping we also plant various organic vegetables and fruits and wheat.
Bee-Keeping is done in over 1000 boxes
I grow different types of organic vegetables
I have 2 buffaloes and 2 goats for dairy purposes
I plant fruits like papaya, guava, lemon and peach
I have kept 10 desi hens
I grow wheat, sugarcane, turmeric and Persian Lilac
Farming today has a lot of potential is farmers can diversify. I diversified my farm and today I am reaping huge benefits from it. I have won numerous awards at different Kisan Melas. I won Jatt Expo Award in Paragpur. I have been honoured by Agricultural Department of Moga in 2014 and in 2016, I was honoured on World Honey Day. I want give this message to my farmer friends that in order to be successful, you have to diversify. Bee keeping is one practice which has been ignored by farmers for too long. One can achieve a lot of success in this field as it is very profitable.
Dhaliwal Honey Farm 
