Two-days District Level Seminar on Potential and Prospectus of Commercial Bee Keeping commences at Kupwara

Kupwara : Two Days District Level Seminar on “Potential and Prospects of Commercial bee keeping in District Kupwara” commenced toady at town hall Kupwara.

Seminar is organized by Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department Kupwara will conclude on 7th Feb, 2024 is sponsored by National Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM), Ministry of Agriculture Government of India

Seminar was inaugurated by Assistant Development Commissioner(ADC) Kupwara, Rouf ur Rahman. On the ocasion, a Souvenir was also released.

More than Two hundred farmers most of them bee Keepers, aspiring bee Keepers from all over the District attended the programme.
ADC while addressing the gathering highlighted the importance of Apiculture in creating employment in the district and assured full support to the farming community for undertaking mega projects to uplift the economy of the farmers.

Earlier in his inaugural address, Gurdeep Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer Kupwara while presenting a detailed over view of the Scope and potential of Bee Keeping in Kupwara district elaborated on the schemes being offered by the UT government for the bee keepers. Chief Agriculture Officer highlighted the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) in Agriculture Sector and detailed about the Projects being implemented for Promotion of Bee Keeping under HADP.
Lead District Manager Kupwara, Mehboob Illahi Khan urged farmers to take up Bee Keeping Business and highlighted the availability of financing facility under various subsidized schemes available for farmers.

On the ocasion it was told that Six Projects amounting to (Rs.176.00 lac) under NBHM were approved by District Level Committee and UT level Committee are being established in the District which include Bee Keeping Custom Hiring Centre, Bee Keeping equipment manufacturing Units, Honey Processing Units. Additionally a Project Proposal in Public sector for the Establishment of Centre of Excellence with project cost of Rs.98.00 lac in Apiculture in Handwara has been approved by the UT level Committee which will enable expanding the Apiculture Sector in the district.

Resource Persons and experts on the ocasion urged educated unemployed youth of the district to take up this lucrative business, harness its potential and contribute to the economy of the district.

They further said that Kupwara district has huge natural resources like forests, crops and herbs which offer an ample scope for agriculture, allied activities especially beekeeping.
They urged the farmers to take maximum benefit under the programme by getting training and awareness of different Government schemes to establish their income generating units under the Apiculture sector.

It was given out on the ocasion that there are numerous success stories on ground regarding Apiculture development in Kupwara district which need to be shared with the aspiring bee keepers.

During the Seminar, the Resource Persons provided awareness to the aspiring beekeepers. The participants were also familiarised about getting registered on Madhukranti Portal and National Beekeeping and Honey Mission.

Meanwhile, the participants expressed gratitude towards the Agriculture Department Kupwara for holding the awareness programme for them.

Lead District Manager J&K Bank, Mehboob Illahi Khan, Scientist from KVK, Firdous Raina, Assistant Soil Conservation Officer, Mukhtar Ahmad Karnai, Syed Mushtaq, District Agriculture Officer (Inputs ) ,Tariq Ahmad Mir, District Agriculture Officer (Extension) , Muneeer Ahmad Naik, SDAO, Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh, SDSM , Malik Ijaz , Apiculture development officer, Pirzada Ishfaq and Javid Ahmad Shah Technical Officers , other experts and progressive farmers attended the seminar.