Bee farming will help to bring about a sweet revolution; Honey Testing Laboratory will help in quality production, exports to other countries, says Giriraj Singh
NEW DELHI, 24 July 2020: Indian minister of agriculture and farmers’ welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has today inaugurated the ‘World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand (Gujarat) with support of National Bee Board (NBB), through Video Conference.
Minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying (FAH&D) Giriraj Singh, Ministers of state for agriculture Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary, Minister of state (FAH&D) Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and senior officers of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare and Department of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying were also present during the inaguration.
Speaking on this, Tomar thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his vision to bring sweet revolution in the country by encouraging large number of famers for production and marketing of honey and earn more profit in agriculture.
Addressing the meeting through VC, he stated that the government is committed towards increasing the income of farmers and the beekeeping enterprise has to play a major role in supplementing the income of farmers.
He further informed that the ministry has taken up several activities to promote bee keeping under ‘Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)’‘National Mission for Beekeeping’ being implemented through National Bee Board and the States.
Tomar expressed the need to focus on imparting training on scientific beekeeping and production of high value honey and honey-bee products and creating awareness among farmers, beekeepers and land less laborers about the scope and potential of bee-keeping enterprise as an additional source of income to them.
He intimated that the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare has approved the National Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) for a period of 2 years.
In view of the vision of Prime Minister for development of Gaon, Garib and Kisan, the bee-keeping enterprise would bring change in the livelihood of farmers and rural poor leading to sustainable agriculture development.
The agriculture minister complimented National Dairying Development Board, National Bee Board, Khadi & Village Industries Corporation, policy makers, farmers & beekeepers for their significant contribution and continued support in this endeavor and further emphasized on increasing bee colonies, honey bee production, processing, marketing and export, which would significantly contribute in GDP and boosting the rural economy.
Speaking on the occasion, Giriraj Singh said that adulteration is a major problem in honey production and honey is being adulterated with high fructose corn syrup or rice, tapioca, sugarcane and beet syrup that are cheaper and resemble honey in physico-chemical properties.
Thanking the prime minister, Singh said that the establishment of this honey testing laboratory will help for quality production of honey and its export to other countries and also suggested to promote the cultivation of flora based crops to enhance the production of honey & honey bee products.
Parshottam Rupala, Kailash Choudhary and Dr. Sanjeev Balyan also expressed their views and suggested to establish more honey testing laboratories in the country.
Based on the parameters notified by FSSAI, the NDDB has set-up this world class lab with all the facilities and developed the test methods/protocols, which have been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).FSSAI has now notified new standards of Honey, Bee Wax and Royal Jelly.
Tomar also inaugurated ‘Two Days Online Training Programme on Scientific Honey-bee Production’ being conducted by National Dairying Development Board (NDDB) and extended compliments to the trainees for their participation in the said programme.
Image credit: bakhaberkissan.com
