The expansion of honey plant afforestation will be pushed to support the beekeeping industry, which is suffering from a reduced number of honey crops and decrease in productivity. (image: National Institute of Forest Science)
DAEJEON, May 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Forest Service (KFS) will plant 150 hectares of honey plants that can produce honey in National Forests across the country every year.
The expansion of honey plant afforestation will be pushed to support the beekeeping industry, which is suffering from a reduced number of honey crops and decrease in productivity.
Most of the National Forests are located in mountainous areas where access to honeybees is difficult, but the KFS plans to find suitable sites and afforestation facilities, mostly acacia trees, which are needed by beekeepers.
For new planting areas, the ministry will designate at least 2 hectares of land to increase economic feasibility and will distribute land to prevent competition between fixed and mobile beekeeping.
After gathering all opinions from the beekeeping industry, the government plans to change the 25 selected honey plants to “honey plants that are in high demand.”
Furthermore, the government plans to provide policy support to public and private forests to expand the cultivation of honey crops.
The National Forest Research Institute of the KFS is conducting research to find new honey sources and objectively evaluate the value of resources in order to solve the structural problems of the domestic beekeeping industry, such as mobile beekeeping and lopsided localization of acacia trees.
It is expected that new honey plants, which are being researched by the institute, will help increase the income of beekeepers and stabilize household income.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
