World Bee Day was celebrated Friday with an enthusiasm with the Union Agriculture Minister stating that the government is working very seriously under the guidance of Prime Minister to bring about a ‘Sweet Revolution’ in the country. On this occasion, a national level function was organised in Tent City-II, Ekta Nagar, Narmada, Gujarat in the presence of Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Tomar inaugurated an exhibition at the venue of the event as well as honey testing laboratories and processing units at Pulwama, Bandipura and Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir; Tumkur in Karnataka, Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Pune in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand in a virtual mode from Gujarat. Tomar said that India lives in rural and the country would progress only when the rural population progresses.”
The Centrally funded scheme, ‘National Beekeeping and Honey Mission’ aims to establish five big regional and 100 small honey and other bee product testing laboratories, out of which three world-class state-of-the-art laboratories have been set up, whereas 25 small laboratories are in the process of being set up. The Government of India is also providing assistance in setting up processing units. More than 1.25 lakh metric tonnes of honey is being produced in the country, out of which more than 60,000 metric tonnes of natural honey is exported. In order to bring qualitative upgradation of domestic honey to attract the world market, the Government of India and the state governments are making concerted efforts and focusing on capacity building of beekeepers for the production of honey by adopting scientific techniques.
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During the programme farmers from different states interacted with Union Agriculture Minister and other experts and narrated their experiences on how beekeeping activity had augmented their income.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary said that the government has provided necessary resources along with new technology to the farmers through various schemes for beekeeping. The government is working on a mission mode to promote beekeeping so that the income of farmers increases.
Agriculture Minister of Gujarat, Raghavji Patel expressed happiness over the selection of the state of Gujarat by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for organising this event. He urged the farmers of Gujarat to adopt scientific beekeeping for better income generation.
Mateja Vodeb, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia; Konda Reddy Chavva, FAO Representative in India; Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW); Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, DA&FW; Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Horticulture Commissioner, DA&FW; Meenish Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB); senior officers from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Government of Gujarat along with a large number of farmers, beekeepers and stakeholders associated with honey production participated in the event.
