Farmers turn to passionfruit to keep bees from buzzing off

Time of India

a day ago

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Every monsoon, a quarter of Ramesh Vaghera's bees vanish. They don't migrate to greener pastures but fly off in search of colour—because his farm offers none. "I grow rice, ragi, urad and tuvar dal, mango and cashew on my 1.5-acre land, which my bees help pollinate.
And while these crops sustain the bees through the year (save rice), none of them flowers in the rains," says Vaghera, a Kukna tribe farmer and beekeeper in Tuterkhed, Dharampur (Valsad district), south Gujarat.
Beekeepers call this the "dearth period"—a season of low flowering. Bees that remain survive on stored honey in their boxes. The rest leave in search of forage. Their absence doesn't cripple the farm, but Vaghera would rather keep all his pollinators close.
This year, he may succeed.
Last year, the farmer planted passion fruit on his mango orchard—a vine that flowers during the monsoon, unlike most regional crops. It's a reliable pollinator flora, rich in nectar and nutrients. Flowering two to three times a year—June-July, October-November, and occasionally March-April—its monsoon blooms are especially valuable to smallholder farmers.
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Though traditionally grown in southern and northeastern India as a cash crop for juice and puree, in parts of Dharampur and Nashik, passion fruit is being cultivated not for the fruit but for its flowers—to feed the bees.
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Surprisingly, the story of this vine's journey to rural Gujarat begins in urban Mumbai. In 2017, Chetan Soorenji, a corporate sector executive , installed a cooling solution on his Chembur rooftop using a trellis of passion fruit vines. Within months, bees, butterflies, and sunbirds flocked to the blossoms. Sensing potential, Soorenji introduced two native bee species—Apis Cerana Indica and Apis Trigona—with support from Under the Mango Tree Society (UTMTS), a nonprofit that helps small and marginal farmers boost yields through native bee pollination.
UTMTS was initially unsure. Would native bees thrive in a city? They did. And when the bees thrived, the vine thrived. The partnership worked so well, it turnedinto the solution to rural bee flight during the dearth period.
Together, UTMTS and Soorenji launched a pilot in Dharampur. A handful of farmers were given saplings, training, and trellis infrastructure. But the first trial failed. "The plantation was set up on a terrace farm where the soil didn't have much organic matter, and so the output was poor," says Soorenji.
The project was relocated to more fertile plots, and this time it flourished.
Still, adoption was slow. "Farmers didn't take to the passion fruit easily," says Sujana Krishnamoorthy, eecutive director, UTMTS. "For one, the plant was completely alien to them. Secondly, it required care and attention, and because it wasn't their primary crop, farmers couldn't always spare money, and effort on it. Eventually, only the more progressive farmers took it up."
Attrition remains high. Soorenji estimates a 50% dropout rate, driven by climate stressors like rising temperatures and falling groundwater levels. Even with rainwater harvesting and earthen pot irrigation training, some farmers view the upkeep as extra burden.
But for others, the vines have become essential. Pundalik Govind Ghangre from Bhavada in Nashik has maintained his plantation since 2022, aided by saplings Soorenji routinely provides. "The vines work for the bees and the dynamic works for us," he says. Ghangre was initially concerned he'd have to spend more on the crop than what he'd earn from it, but later discovered cost-effective ways to maintain it. "The vines can be grown on walls, roofs, and even fences.
" Still, the real incentive for many is the bees. "Many of the farmers are committed beekeepers," says Krishnamoorthy.
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