The sun is low on the horizon, and the scorching heat of the day is finally subsiding. I stand beside a parched field in a small village in the Ayyalur district of Tamil Nadu, about to meet Danam. Danam is thirty years old and has three children. She and her husband, Tanasi, have only a small piece of arable land, so she takes on supplementary work to feed her family. While Tanasi works as a labourer and cuts wood in far-flung areas, Danam works on a construction site when she is not tending to the field, animals, or her children. After carrying heavy sacks of concrete all day in up to 45C heat, I am amazed she still has the energy and desire to talk to me that evening. I ask her about her family and what she wants for her three children. She smiles and says she wants them to be happy, healthy and to be able to finish their education. It’s not easy to protect and provide for your family in rural Tamil Nadu.
Climate change is reducing crop yields, biodiversity is reducing, income is hard to come by. Farmers like Danam are facing major difficulties. But while we speak, there is a buzz in the air – we are sitting right next to one of Danam’s bee hives. She is a beekeeper, the first in her village.
As an Indian-German documentary filmmaker with a particular interest in human-animal relationships, I am always searching for inspiring stories to cover, especially from India. When I learned about The World Bee Project’s work with Seeds Trust, an Indian NGO in Tamil Nadu, supporting women like Danam in rural Tamil Nadu to become the first beekeepers in their communities, I reached out and asked if I could visit. I wanted to discover how beekeeping is transforming these women’s lives and impacting their environment and document their stories through my camera.
Over the past three years, the joint programme has empowered over 100 women to start homestead honey production. This honey production has had a significant impact not only on the women but also on crop yield and local biodiversity. The programme exclusively uses native bees which is increasing their population numbers in the region. That, in turn, has been a blessing for farmers as the bees pollinate crops and thereby increase yields. The programme has also provided the women beekeepers in training with fruit trees, conserving local biodiversity and providing them with another food source. As someone who knew very little about beekeeping, I was amazed to learn that, if done responsibly like in this programme, it can not only benefit people but also the nature and plants around them, conserving and protecting nature. I realised that I had much to learn, and I was very excited to meet the remarkable women who are part of the programme during a visit in May 2024, where I got an in-depth view into the programme and its impact.
On the left: Isa Rao with Danam’s daughter
Right: Danam in her field
Danam shows me the hives she has been looking after for over two years now. The hives house several colonies of Apis Cerana Indica, the native bees of the region. They are black, with four yellow stripes on the belly, and much smaller than their European Apis Mellifera counterparts I am familiar with. Danam began learning how to keep bees with Seeds Trust when the programme started in 2022. The programme supports many small farmers like Danam and Tanasi and it is obvious to me that the impact on the families and the community has been transformative. Honey production has become integral to their livelihoods. As Danam proudly tells me, the women use the honey as food and medicine for their children. When there is enough honey to harvest, it is sold for extra income, which is especially crucial during the harsh summer months when other sources of income are scarce.
Since 2022, The World Bee Project and Seeds Trust have provided one-to-one teaching sessions, enabling the women to gain the experience and knowledge to master this complex new skill. Danam admits that initially she was afraid of being stung by the bees, but now handling the frames and checking on her bees is almost second nature to her. Problems still arise, but continued support from Seeds Trust’s Master Beekeepers ensures the women learn how to address any challenges. Beekeeping is a delicate art, Mr. Kannan, one of the programme leaders, tells me as he gently inspects the hives with Danam, offering her advice. As the evening turns into night, Mr. Kannan and I say goodbye to Danam and her family.
Programme executives with a beekeeper and her children.
Over the next few days, I have the privilege of meeting many more inspiring women in different villages who have benefited from learning beekeeping through The World Bee Project’s collaboration with local NGO, Seeds Trust. As I film and follow their daily routines, I see how seamlessly beekeeping integrates into their everyday workload, an important aspect given that many of them juggle multiple jobs and take care of their families too. The bees have become an integral part of their households, and I find it easy to believe when one woman tells me on my final visit to her village: “Being around the bees makes me happy. They have become part of my family.”
As my visit ends, I reflect on the extraordinary things I have witnessed during my time with these women. What stands out to me is how, in just three years, Seeds Trust and The World Bee Project have successfully helped the women learn and sustain a new skill. A skill that not only provides essential extra income but has also empowered the women, boosting their self-confidence and economic agency, which in turn has raised their social status in their families and communities. A skill that also benefits the plants and nature in the area by protecting and improving native bee population numbers, improving pollination in local farms and conserving biodiversity.
Having heard from women like Danam about how beekeeping has transformed their lives and their community, I can only hope Seeds Trust and The World Bee Project succeed in expanding the project, enabling even more women in Tamil Nadu to become beekeepers. Back home in Germany, as I edit the footage I shot in Ayyalur, I can only marvel at how the work of tiny creatures like bees, if harnessed through a well-organised programme like this, can have such a significant, positive impact – on the lives of the women who are now transforming their own lives by learning how to care for local honeybee species and for the natural environment that, no matter where we live, we all have a responsibility to protect.