A survey study was conducted to study the profitability index of apiculture enterprise in Pathankot, Gurdaspur district, Punjab. Data for period of a year (2009- 9010) was collected by interviewing randomly selected 10 beekeepers from a sample survey. Profitability Index of apiculture was computed by including and excluding the revenue obtained from colony selling. 3% of beekeepers sold bee colonies for earning income which was very less. The study revealed that Profitability Indices of apiculture were 2.81 and 1.88 in the case of inclusion and exclusion of the income received from the colony selling, respectively. It showed that apiculture industry was running in profit in both cases. But in former case, the PI is higher than the latter case therefore in order to find that which investment option is better (Beekeeping with colony selling or not colony selling) the Payback Period technique of investment evaluation is used. The research findings showed that in former case the investment would take 0.35 years to pay back and in latter case it would take 0.53 years to payback the returns hence it was concluded that beekeeping with colony selling was better investment option and was a good source of income . Further, it is suggested that Govt. of Punjab should encourage the apiculture by providing timely loan facilities at reasonable interest rates, arranging training programmes which create the awareness of the latest techniques to farmers and how to keep the financial records so that they are able to assess which option will yield them higher and faster returns as this is cheapest and good source of income for rural people in Pathankot .
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