How adversity turned Josephine Selvaraj into an entrepreneur
Besides her original name, Josephine Selvaraj is known by quite a few nicknames, and of the lot ‘Queen Bee’ is the one even she is proud to flaunt. Josephine Selvaraj is both an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur. Unlike the many high profile women entrepreneurs we have written about in the past, Josephine turned entrepreneur to fulfill the most basic need that many Indian families still struggle for – three square meals a day. “We were a family of five me, my husband and three children. My husband earned Rs 2000 per month and things were difficult when you have children going to school and a family to support,” explains Josephine. She has a degree in history and at some point she also toyed with the thought of being a teacher. But a three-day course in bee-keeping at Krishi Vigyan Kendra(KVK) at Madurai changed her life forever.
Apiculture aka bee farming
“I learnt bee-farming at KVK to support my family with some extra income. So I started in 2006, while taking care of my children,” says Josephine of the early days. With an investment of Rs 5,000 and ten boxes to rear the bees, Josephine started her business. Today she earns about a lakh rupee per month, and rears bees in more than 8,000 boxes. Josephine sells her honey to 23 districts in Tamil Nadu and also participates in a number of exhibitions across the country as time permits her to. Her honey is also supplied to Bangalore, Kerala and Mumbai, and in all she sells about 6,000 boxes of honey every year. Despite the great quality and a good demand for her products, Josephine is sure she will not export her products. “There are so many places within India that I have not yet reached. I want to make sure my honey is available in every nook and corner of India, before I look outside,” she says assertively.Josephine sells the honey under the ‘Vibis’ brand name and today offers 30 varieties of honey like Jamun, Neem and Amla among others. All the honey produced by Vibis Natural Honey Bee Farm is organic and Josephine ensures there are no fertilizers or chemicals involved in the honey produced on their farm.
Josephine’s venture received a big boost when her loan for Rs 10 lakh was approved by Canara Bank and she could use the money to expand and grow her business. “Canara Bank is very supportive of me, but earlier when I had approached them for a loan in 2009, they were very reluctant. But now they know I am a good customer, because I pay my installments regularly,” says Josephine proudly.
The lady behind the entrepreneur
If you see Josephine, she looks like the many traditionally dressed women in pavadai dhavani in Tamil Nadu. But her looks are no way representative of the steel resolve that this lady has. Besides being hands on at her bee farm, Josephine routinely works for 20 hours a day – especially when she and her team have to transport 250 boxes of bees during night time. “Bees have to be shifted in the night when they are sleeping, else it is very difficult to transport them when they are awake,” explains Josephine.
Another routine that Josephine follows, is to give free training to people across schools, colleges, housewives and spread awareness among as many people as possible. She does this every second Sunday of the month, and todate has trained 140 housewives and more than 50,000 people. About 420 people among the lot she has trained have also started their own bee farms. She was also invited to train inmates from Madurai Jail, and today 20 inmates from the jail are doing their own bee-keeping, thanks to Josephine.
Josephine is very thankful to her family’s unwavering support in all her work. Her brother, mother and sister have been great supporters of her work. However she does miss her husband who passed away recently, her eyes moisten at the thought of this loss. Few years back in 2009, Josephine also lost her 17-year old daughter to bone cancer. But her beautiful smile lights up her face when she thanks her “winged angels” (the bees) for helping her pull through these personal tragedies and grow stronger.
Future Plans
Josephine doesn’t talk about numbers or growth plans when we ask her about future plans. But like a person in love, she says: “My aim is to take the art and science of bee-keeping to every house and spread the word everywhere about this hobby.” She has also written three books in Tamil about bee-keeping, benefits of honey and its various products.
Josephine explains there are many benefits of bee stings as well and she wants to spread awareness of its benefits as far and wide as possible. “Bee sting helps in controlling blood pressure problems, stroke and arthritis. There are five varieties of bees. Everyone can enjoy honey, it is good for all. Old people, young people can all be benefitted by the medicinal properties. It has 180 nutritional properties. There is so much knowledge about bees to be spread that it may not be possible in my lifetime,” laughs Josephine. She has herself been stung by bees more than 2,000 times and none of them have been fatal – another proof of their good, asserts Queen Bee!
Josephine is the only women in India to be doing bee-farming on such a large scale and for her efforts she has won the Collector Award for her Vadipatti taluka three years in a row. She was also awarded the Tamil Nadu Government’s best farming practices award in 2010 – and has the distinction of being the only lady farmer to have won that award to date. Josephine was recently awarded the Janakidevi Bajaj Puraskar 2012 for rural entrepreneurship.
