Chandigarh, September 23 - With an aim to promote Bee Keeping in the State, Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal today launched the Haryana Bee Keeping Policy-2021 and Action Plan 2021-2030. Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, Sh. JP Dalal was also present during the launch.

Sh. Manohar Lal directed the officers to aim to enhance the production of honey by 10 times by 2030. He also directed officers to motivate the farmers to start bee keeping and get 5000 new farmers to take up the initiative for which the State will provide help.

He said that with bee keeping the farmers will be encouraged to sow alternative crops like sunflower and mustard. He said that sale of honey and its by-products like Royal Jelly, Beewax, Propolis, Bee Pollen and Bee Venom will enhance the income of the farmers many times over. He also directed the officers to ensure to focus on small farmers to help increase their income through bee keeping. He said that private entrepreneurs should be encouraged to start businesses for manufacturing bee boxes and monitor the quality of the boxes.

Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, Dr Sumita Mishra said that if we focus on by-products of beekeeping there will be significant growth in the income of farmers. She also informed that Integrated Bee Development Centre (IBDC), Ramnagar, Kurukshetra is the one of a kind institute and we aim to make it a centre of excellence.

Director General, Horticulture Department, Dr. Arjun Singh Saini gave a comprehensive presentation on Haryana Bee Keeping Policy-2021 and Action Plan 2021-2030. During the presentation he informed that Haryana stands at 7th place in honey production in the country and 4800 MT of honey is produced in Haryana. The country produced about 1 lakh MT of honey in 2019-2020. 60 percent of the honey produced in country worth Rs 600 crore is exported.

The Chief Minister was apprised that various initiatives will be undertaken by the Department to promote Bee Keeping like establishing Honey Trade Centre, Village of Excellence, Testing Lab, etc.

Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. V Umashankar, Vice Chancellor, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Dr. BR Kamboj and Vice Chancellor, Maharana Pratap Horticultural University, Dr. Samar Singh were also present during the launch.