Honey is as good as it gets provided the nectar is collected by bees from the right source.

Hobbies when turned into professions and business ideas, become successful all the way undoubtedly. People embrace various hobbies and most of them turn their interests and hobbies into their means of living. Rahila Kousar from North Kashmir is one such person who embraced her hobby and turned into an entrepreneur providing employment to others with her business. This is her story and let's get into knowing about this woman from the valley. 

A Unique Hobby That Turned Into A Business Opportunity: 

Rahila Kousar is a 38-year-old woman who hails from Nambla village of Uri area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Rahila had the hobby of beekeeping ever since her childhood. This interest in bee-keeping grew with age and she successfully turned her hobby into a business model and launched her own venture in 2011 under the brand name, Uri Honey. The name, she says, struck her mind from her native town. “I thought why not Uri and promote my own place,” she said Rahila started this venture under the Self Help Group scheme launched by the then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti. After taking a month's training from the Apiculture department, she started with 10 Apiaries that she bought from the Apiculture Department and as the business went on well, she bought 300 more apiaries. She said that one apiary produces 5 kilograms of honey.

A Careful Watch Over Things:  

Rahila Kousar who carefully does the honey production says that her business depends solely on the weather. Production of honey happens mostly in the hot weather as it is then that the bees go for the breeding process making the extraction process easier. Rahila says that they move in search of pleasant weather to continue their work of honey production which is done four times a year. “Till April, we work in Jammu as Kashmir still remains under the grip of cold. Afterward, we come to the valley till December and then Gujarat for two months and back to Jammu,” Kousar explained in an interview. Rahila said that they pack the honey mostly in packs of 500gms and sell at Rs. 500 each. They also make packages of one kilo and more, depending on the customers' demand. They do the process of extracting and packing at home. With their bee colonies producing around 25 kilograms of honey per year, they earn around Rs 6 lakh through the business. Rahila who is providing employment through her business says that currently over four men work with them and have settled in their lives. She said that she employs more people in the days to come.