Native Bee for Agricultural Pollination; Premium Honey as Rewards in Bee Conservation

Dr. Mohd Zulkifli Mustafa (PhD)

Shazana Hilda Shamsuddin(PhD)

Siti Khatijah Abdul Razak (PhD)

Nurin Izyani Ramlee

Rohimah Mohamud (PhD)

Stingless bee is a type of bee that has no stinger and produces honey, bee pollen and propolis. Known as “kelulut” by the locals, the stingless bee industry has been recognized as one of the holistic approach to empower socio-economy and ecology. However the facts that honey is stuck in traditional market due to quality and volume issues hindered the potential. The bee also faces extinction due to intensive deforestation, agrochemical pollution, flood, and other factors. Addressing this, we are attempting to enhance institutional protections, providing a 'home' for them in 4000 local communities. Various acts have been implemented that came up with significant awards winning inventions such as MUSTAFA Hive, SOP Books, HILDA System and KEIFh System. Premium honey produced and commercialization has helped in generating income to the targeted communities, which is rewarding and thus, indirectly drives actions towards bees’ conservation that ensure sustainability of the bees. This is important for plant pollination in agricultural crops, especially in addressing food security issues. To date, the industry has seen to catalyse the spill-over impacts in community in relation to new products, entrepreneurship, agricultural interest and general well-being as a whole.

Problem Statement

Bees under threat.
Traditional honey production that sells at cheap price.

Novelty and Inventiveness

UPSTREAM; Sustainable honey production achieved via invention of stingless bee colony duplicable hive (MUSTAFA-HIVE), honey dehydration without heating system (HILDA SYSTEM), multi-parameters honey freshness and authenticity screening (KEIFh system).
DOWNSTREAM; Development of GMP, HACCP, ISO22000, and Halal Certified honey production plant.

Applicability and Benefits

Complete innovations for entire stingless bee honey production and supply chain as well as 4000 beekeepers have been trained.
Service for honey bottling with international certifications that enables for honey export.

Research Achievement

Five postgraduates have graduated, 5 impactful journals published and more than RM 5 million grants secured until 2023. All inventions secured National Agriculture Innovation Award 2015, Gold Medal at Malaysian Agriculture Invention Show 2015, Silver Medal at PECIPTA 2017, State Entrepreneur Icon 2017 and National Agriculture Innovation Award 2020.

Commercialization Potential And Industrial Partner

MUSTAFA-Hive valued at RM1 000 000 per year.
HILDA System services valued at RM150,000 per year.
KEIFH System valued at RM500,000 per year.
Premium Stingless bee honey value at RM3,000,000 per year.
Brainey Sdn Bhd.
Honeygold Enterprise (M) Sdn Bhd.

Intellectual Property Status

MUSTAFA-HIVE (Patent no MY-176721-A), HILDA SYSTEM (Patent No MY-189434-A), KEIFH System (Patent pending No P2022006948), KEIFH Scale (Copyright no CRLY2021E01555).

Status of Invention

Technology Readiness Level 9.

Impact of Innovation

Collaboration of Universiti Sains Malaysia (Institution) with local agencies TERAJU (Government), local beekeepers society DRONESS (Community) as well as Honeygold Enterprise (M) Sdn Bhd (Industrial partner) directly improved the quality of the stingless bee honey and offered profitable price to beekeepers. Good incomes to beekeepers drove the conservation program for bee to do pollination on our forest and agriculture plants.

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