Sri Vijayapuram, February 10: The Zonal Agriculture Office Diglipur, Department of Agriculture, A&N Administration in collaboration with the National Bee Board, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, New Delhi is organizing a two-days District Level Training Programme on ‘Scientific Bee Keeping – Role of Bees in Agriculture and its Economics’ from 10th to 11th February, 2025 at Diglipur.
The programme was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri Vasant Prasad Dabholkar, IAS (P) Assistant Commissioner, Diglipur in the presence of Guest of Honour Shri Dipankar Mistry, Pramukh, Panchayat Samity in the Conference Hall of GPOA Building, Diglipur today on 10.02.2025.
In his address, the Chief Guest, praised the efforts of Agriculture Department in bringing awareness about Scientific Bee Keeping among the farmers by conducting a District Level Training at Diglipur. Emphasizing on the vast rich bio-diversity available in the Islands with extensive forest cover and favorable climatic conditions, there is great potential for exploring on this aspect. He encouraged the farmers and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to adopt Bee keeping not only for honey production but also for its pollination benefits. He also emphasized on adopting beekeeping as a lucrative self-employment opportunity.
Shri Dipankar Mistry, Pramukh, Panchayat Samity, the Guest of Honour shared his insights with the participants and emphasized on preservation of honey bees for increased agricultural production. He appealed to the participants to practice honeybee rearing in their field and avail the benefit under the High Value Agriculture scheme.
Smti Shirly Thomas, Joint Director (Agri), N & M Andaman briefed the august audience about Beekeeping being a vital agri-input in crop pollination thereby increasing the agriculture production. She also briefed about the NHM Schemes –Pollination support under MIDH for beekeeping wherein a beneficiary is provided with Rs 800/- as subsidy per bee hive box and Rs. 800/- per bee colonies.
Dr. V. Damodaran, Sr. Scientist and Head KVK, North & Middle Andaman advocated for Bee keeping by SHG and farmers, as it is benefitted for pollination of the fruits, vegetables and oil seeds crop.
Smti Anita Mondal, Pradhan Keralapuram Gram Panchayat and Shri Swapan Kumar Das, Pradhan Gandhinagar also participated in the program and encouraged the participants to take maximum benefits out of the programm.
Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Smti Arti Singh, Assistant Director (Agri) Diglipur briefed the participants with the objective of the training i.e. to encourage and promote bee keeping as a viable livelihood option for rural communities and also improving the crop productivity with the aim to enhance knowledge and skills in scientific beekeeping practices. She further highlighted the importance of beekeeping in agriculture.
During the technical session, various aspects of Beekeeping viz. Introduction to Bee Keeping, Developing sustainable bee keeping practices and understanding bee colonies and their communication, Multiplication techniques of Bee colonies, overall bee management etc. were dealt by the expert speakers from KVK, N & M Andaman and Agriculture Department, N & M Andaman.
A showcase of Honeybee box, appliances used for honeybee rearing and protective gears were also displayed and briefed to the Chief Guest, Guest of Honour, other dignitaries and the participants by Shri Riktik Baroi, Junior Agriculture Assistant, Diglipur. The first day of the training programme concluded with an interactive session, where farmers had the opportunity to seek expert guidance on improving their beekeeping skills.
Altogether, 109 participants, including Progressive Farmers, SHG members and Departmental extension functionaries of N & M Andaman District actively participated in the training programme, gaining valuable insights into scientific beekeeping techniques.
The programme ended with vote of thanks proposed by Smti Seena Pillai S. J, Agriculture Officer (I/c).
The second day of the District Level Training Programme will be field visit to SCSD Farm, VS Pally and Multipurpose Farm, Keralapuram wherein the participants will be provided with hands on training –cum-demonstration on scientific rearing of honey bee with special reference to establishing new box, its maintenance, honey harvesting and its extraction.
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