हिंदी
Chandigarh, August 7- With a view to facilitating production and trade of quality honey in the State, the Haryana Government has proposed various infrastructure development projects and training programmes for beekeepers to the tune of Rs. 32.28 crore under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ economic package.
This includes setting up of a quality control test laboratory at Integrated Beekeeping Development Centre (IBDC), Ramnagar, district Kurukshetra, at a cost of Rs. 20 crore. Besides, Rs. 1.40 crore would be earmarked for establishing collection, marketing and storage centres, post-harvest, and value addition at IBDC. A sum of Rs. 10.88 crore is proposed to be spent on other components such as beehives, bee-colonies, bee-breeders, training programmes and other state agricultural universities (SAU) projects.
While stating this here today, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal, said that the setting up of the laboratory, which would be got accredited, would help beekeepers and honey producers produce quality honey for domestic consumption, as well as exports.
Besides Haryana, the laboratory would also cater to all northern states which have a major share in honey production, including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
He said that the IBDC already had all other infrastructure facilities, including sufficient manpower. Experts would be recruited for this laboratory, which would cater to the requirements of beekeepers and exporters for frequent testing at affordable rates.
The Haryana Government is establishing Honey Trade Centre at IBDC for trading and auctioning of honey. The Centre would include storage facilities where honeybee keepers, producers, traders and exporters would transact. This would boost honey production and quality honey would be made available to the consumers, he added.
He said that the State Government had approved implementation of the Central scheme ‘National Beekeeping and Honey Mission’ (NBHM) and constitution of State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department. The IBDC would be the implementing agency for the mission in the State, he further added.
Under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, the Central Government has allocated Rs. 500 crore for infrastructure development related to integrated beekeeping development centres, collection, marketing and storage centres, post-harvest, and value addition facilities.
