Co-op giants Nafed and co-op lender NCDC, among others participated in a workshop on “Promotion of Bee-Keeping Sector in Southern Region” which was organized jointly by MANAGE and National Bee Board (NBB) at Hyderabad.
More than 350 stakeholders which included senior officers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India, National Beekeeping and Honey Mission, National Bee Board, NCDC, Cooperatives, Banks and others.
It bears recalling that the Prime Minister has laid special emphasis on alternative sources of income for farmers and bee-keeping is an important part of the same. During the technical sessions, Dr Unnikrishnan, GM of NAFED shared the NAFED strategy for Apiculture. Nafed has launched five honey FPOs spread in the states of Bihar, UP, MP, West Bengal & Rajasthan.
Nafed is also ready with a blueprint of launching about 50 Honey FPOs across the country.The move will benefit honey collectors and marginal farmers by facilitating quality enhancement of their produce through systematic collection, processing, packaging, standardization and connecting them to the markets and value chain, said the Nafed official.
Welcoming the participants Director General, MANAGE Dr. P. Chandra Shekara highlighted the importance of honeybees and beekeeping in doubling the farmers’ income and ensuring sustainable agricultural practices. He felt there is a great need to provide Extension Services and build capacities of Farmers, Agripreneurs and Agri Startups on beekeeping, processing technologies and marketing to promote the sector.
The Chief Guest Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, IAS, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India stressed the need to treat Beekeeping / Honeybee as an input in Agriculture to boost crop productivity through pollination and ensure sustainable agriculture in the country.
Considering the importance of Beekeeping/ Honeybees, ICAR institutions, State Agricultural Universities and Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture in States and UTs need to work together in a Mission Mode. He desired that MANAGE may create a database of Agri Startup and Agripreneurs in Bee-keeping and Honeybees sector and undertake a study on potentials of Beeswax to know the forward and backward linkages for funding under Beekeeping and Honey Mission.
He highlighted the Madhu Kranti portal established by MoAFW to support small and marginal farmers and other stakeholder across the value chain. He stated that there is a need to promote FPO, Societies and Cooperatives to accelerate Beekeeping and Honey Mission in the country.
It bears recalling that on the World Bee Day, the cooperative lender NCDC had organized a webinar on “Sweet Revolution and Atmanirbhar Bharat, where scores of experts along with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had participated.