During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for consumption of natural ingredients rich in nutrients such as honey and other honey bee products has increased sharply. Based on data from the Indonesian Beekeeping Association (API), Indonesians consume 7,000 – 15,000 tons of honey annually, excluding data from other products and excluding foreign demand. This high demand is not comparable to the production capacity of domestic farmers who are only able to produce 4,000 tons of honey annually.
This is also felt by beekeepers in Ciburial Village, Bandung. Low production has caused local beekeepers to be unable to take advantage of domestic market opportunities that are in tight competition with foreign bee products. Another factor that causes decreased production is the increasingly uncertain climate conditions that cause flowers that are natural food sources to decrease and become further apart. Because the production process depends entirely on the surrounding nature, the honey production process only occurs during the transitional season.
With this background, the PKM-Implementation of Science and Technology (PKM-PI) Team of the University of Indonesia consisting of five FMIPA UI students, namely Kristina Hersandi (Biology 2018), Alyssa Zahwa Ananda (Biology 2018), Albertus Aldo (Chemistry 2019), Jovel Edrei (Chemistry 2019), and Din Wijaya (Biology 2020) were present in Ciburial Village, Bandung, to introduce knowledge about how to improve honey bee products to honey bee farmers there through the “Smart Bee-Farming” innovation.
Smart Bee-Farming is an integrated concept of honey bee cultivation by planting natural plants in the form of Tagetes patula and Wedelia trilobata as a source of natural food, as well as fermented home rice water waste and pineapple skin waste as efficient additional feed for farmers. This waste is quite a lot found around the activity location.
The series of activities began on June 1, 2021 at the location with an introduction to natural and artificial feed that had been prepared by the team. Furthermore, a trial of feeding was carried out from July 18 to August 29, 2021. The team also held an online workshop on August 28, 2021, to provide insight to farmers about the life of honey bees, the role of yeast as a substitute for pollen, and a demonstration of how to make feed that had been carried out by the team so that farmers were able to produce artificial honey bee feed independently. “said Kristina as the Team Leader.
The drive to increase honey bee production as a potential green and environmentally friendly industry emerged from the concerns of the team, especially Kristina who is also a regular consumer of honey bee products. She admitted that she regularly consumes honey bee products because of their delicious taste and healthy properties.
“I myself am a fan of several products made from bees, because they taste good and are healthy. In addition, I dug up from several sources that Indonesia is home to several species of honey bees, some of which are even hard to find. Therefore, the meeting with partners mediated by Mrs. Wellyzar as our supervisor, namely Mr. Aeppudin, gave me new insights that these bees actually have unique behavior and their cultivation still requires special attention from the community, not just the breeders.” he added.
Regarding the selection of fermented home-made rice water waste and pineapple skin as the main ingredients of artificial feed, he explained that rice water waste can be an effective medium for producing yeast biomass. Yeast biomass mixed with pineapple syrup made from pineapple waste will be a feed that Apis cerana likes. The aroma of pineapple is very much liked by honey bees.
The team hopes that the application of science in food processing during the series of programs can have a positive impact on livestock partners, so that the goal of the “Smart Bee-Farming” concept to maintain the stability of the amount of honey bee product production throughout the year can be achieved.
This production concept received a very good response from the farmer partners. During the trial period, one of the honey bee farmers, Mr. Aeppudin, reported that his bees liked the additional feed, so that the bees did not need to look for food sources in distant places and leave their livestock clones.
Although obstacles arose during the implementation of the program due to the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) since August 2020 and the Implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) since June 2021 in order to prevent an increase in COVID-19 cases, causing restrictions on physical meetings. This caused several series of programs to be carried out online via video conferencing applications so that face-to-face meetings with all parties could still be carried out.
Receiving a positive response, the Team also plans to further develop its innovation so that it can be applied according to the needs of local Indonesian honey bee farmers in meeting high demand from consumers, while also encouraging the progress of the honey bee industry to improve community welfare.
