Interventions in Honey Value Chains: Making Difference for Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Honey as a natural product, through interaction of complex botanical and zoological species, generates a unique market with huge information asymmetry. It is ethnic communities, living closely with the nature, which depend on honey for their livelihood. Power dynamics in the trading scenario works unfavourably for the ethnic communities. In this paper we are documenting the intervention by Keystone Foundation that has changed the value chains in honey trade in Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) which is spread in three south Indian states. We also compare impact of different types of traders on the income for honey hunters by presenting one value chain in a local community.