Two Days District Level Seminar cum Awareness Program on Scientific Keeping begins in Kathua

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KATHUA, JAN 24:- Two days District Level Seminar cum Awareness Program on “Scientific Beekeeping“ inaugurated bySanjeev Rai Gupta, Chief Agriculture Officer Kathua along with Murari Lal, District Agriculture Officer(Ext.), Kathua. The seminar cum awareness program was focused on present status, achievements in Apiculture Sector. Programme was based on Scientific Beekeeping, training to beekeepers and awareness among aspiring bee keepers of the district.
Welcoming the Chief Guest, Area development Officer (Vegetables) Ashok Sarmal in his address said,” The seminar welcomes all aspiring farmers, entrepreneurs and bee keepers of the district”.
Speaking on the Occasion, Chief Guest, Sanjeev Rai Gupta, CAO Kathua deliberated the progress made in Beekeeping, basic infrastructure development and improvement in production of honey in the district. He said” Presently Honey Production in the district has almost doubled in past three years to 758 Quintals from 395 Quintals in 2021-22, thereby generating a revenue of Rs. 2.45 crore in the year 2024-25. More and More young entrepreneurs and Bee Keepers are joining the Honey Mission. At present 32 Bee Keeping Units, counting to 6549 Bee Colonies are functional employing 227 Bee keepers in the Honey production. This was only possible due to some basic structural changes, motivation of farmers, beekeepers and subsidy benefits given to farmers under various schemes of the Department.
He also said,” There are 114 beekeepers registered on Madhu Kranti portal, the portal facilitates trade and act as bridge between Honey Sellers and traders. We have also given benefits to Beekeepers by facilitating them with subsidized Bee Colonies, Honey Collection and storage centres, Facilitation Centres, Migration facilities, Manufacturing and Honey Extraction Units to bee keepers under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme also. He said, two Demonstration cum training centres in the District, Bagial and Sarthal are helping the Bee keepers and training them on scientific lines.”
Speaking on the subject, Amit Kumar, Subject Matter Specialist, (SDL) Kathua and Pankaj Jasrotia, Apiculture Development Assistant, Kathua deliberated the importance of Scientific Bee Keeping, the progress made in the district and various aspects of beekeeping from production, extraction, packaging, value Addition and sale of Honey.
Progressive Bee Keeper Suresh Kumar of Thangar and Reva Rani of Lakhri also shared their technical expertise on Beekeeping, migration techniques, honey extraction, value addition and marketing of Honey, simultaneously appreciated the efforts of Department of Agriculture, Kathua
More than 200 number of bee keepers and farmers participated in the awareness Programme. Upon the occasion Progressive Bee Keepers were also felicitated on the occasion.
Murari Lal, DAO (Ext.) Kathua finally submitted vote of thanks to Chief Guest, Farmers, Bee Keepers and officers and officials present.
Also present on occasion were Kuldeep Bassen (SMS) DL, Kuldeep Raj (SMS) DL, . Anil Kumar, ASC, STL Kathua, Ashwani Kumar, MDO Kathua, Ashwani Sharma, SDAO Hiranagar, Parshotam Gupta, SDAO Kathua, Devinder Singh SMS(SDL), Kailash Sharma, SMS(SDL) Parmod Kumar, AEO Kathua and other officers and officials of the department.