Up to 10 Million KRW Support for Apiculture Damage Farms through Agricultural and Livestock Management Funds

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Announces Early Recovery and Recurrence Prevention Measures for Overwintering Honeybee Damage
Intensive Pest Control from June to October
Promoting R&D and Breed Improvement to Strengthen Response Capabilities

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Joo Sang-don] The government has decided to support early recovery for beekeepers who suffered winter honeybee damage by providing agricultural and livestock management funds (up to 10 million KRW). Additionally, to prevent recurrence, it will focus on controlling the pest mite, which spreads infectious diseases to adult honeybees and larvae, and promote research and development as well as breed improvement for mid- to long-term response capabilities.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it will implement the "Early Recovery and Recurrence Prevention Measures for Winter Honeybee Damage" containing these details.

According to the Ministry, while the winter damage during the 2021-22 winter season showed significant losses (400,000 colonies, damage rate 14.9%), this time the honeybee damage appears to have occurred to about 400,000 to 500,000 colonies from September to November last year, before entering winter. As a result, the number of honeybee colonies in December 2022 was approximately 2.47 million, a decrease of 8.2% compared to the same month the previous year (2.69 million colonies).

The Ministry believes that the main cause of this honeybee damage is the mite, which has developed resistance to pesticides. Due to the long-term widespread use of pesticides containing a specific ingredient (flumethrin), resistant mites have spread and caused damage to the managed honeybees.

First, the Ministry plans to minimize honeybee damage through early recovery of colonies and large-scale mite control. It will promote early supply of beehives to affected farms by April, cooperating with farms that had less damage due to excellent management. About 400 farms affiliated with beekeeping cooperatives and regional livestock cooperatives will conduct nucleus colony division by the end of April to supply affected farms. Furthermore, in cooperation with the Rural Development Administration and regional agricultural technology centers, technical guidance will be strengthened to ensure that the colonies of farms conducting early nucleus division can smoothly recover and divide.

The Ministry will also ease the production cost burden of beekeepers by supporting stocking and feed costs. Agricultural and livestock management funds (up to 10 million KRW, interest rate 2.5%) will be provided to beekeepers to be used for purchasing colonies and equipment. Additionally, each city and province will prepare their own projects to support stocking costs or pollen and equipment purchase costs for each farm (approximately 50 billion KRW scale).

Large-scale mite control for year-round damage prevention will also be promoted. From June to October this year, a concentrated honeybee control period will be operated, during which local governments and producer organizations will cooperate to regularly inform farms about resistant mite control methods and mite occurrence status, encouraging control practices.

The government will also promptly supply control agents so that early treatment can be conducted immediately after winter. Pesticides containing resistant ingredients will be excluded from government support, and improvements have been made to prevent the same ingredient from being selected for two consecutive years.

Research and development to enhance response capabilities to honeybee damage risks will also be pursued. Management methods to maintain healthy colonies under changing climate conditions will be developed, and causal relationships between climate change and the occurrence of pests and diseases such as mites will be investigated. Furthermore, an appropriate number of colonies to be managed will be calculated and presented, considering the domestic nectar source area and honey production volume. Management methods during winter using temperature control facilities such as cold storage and greenhouses will also be developed and promoted to farms.

Kim Jung-wook, Director of Livestock Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "We expect that these measures will enable early recovery from honeybee damage and establish a prevention system." He added, "Since timely mite control is crucial to preventing recurrence of honeybee damage, active participation in control and prompt reporting of abnormalities to local governments by beekeepers are necessary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.