Govt will spend Rs. 500 crore to encourage scientific bee keeping in next 3 years

New Delhi: Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping as part of the Integrated Farming System in the country, the union government has approved allocation of Rs. 500 crore for National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) for three years (2020-21 to 2022-23).

The mission was announced as part of the AtmaNirbhar Bharat scheme. NBHM aims for the overall promotion and development of scientific beekeeping in the country to achieve the goal of ‘Sweet Revolution’ which is being implemented through the National Bee Board (NBB).

The main objective of NBHM is to promote holistic growth of the beekeeping industry for income and employment generation for farm and non-farm households. Besides,  the scheme also aims to create awareness about scientific beekeeping under Mini Mission-I, post-harvest management of beekeeping, beehive products, including collection, processing, storage, marketing, value addition, etc. under Mini Mission-II and Research & Technology generation in beekeeping under Mini Mission-III. Rs 150.00 Crores has been allotted to NBHM for 2020-21.

11 projects of Rs. 2560 lakhs have been sanctioned under NBHM for Awareness & Capacity building in scientific beekeeping, empowerment of Women through beekeeping, technology demonstrations on impact of Honeybees on yield enhancement & quality improvements of agriculture/horticulture produce. It also aims to make farmers aware about the distribution of specialized Beekeeping equipments for production of high value products, viz. Royal Jelly, Bee Venom, Comb Honey, etc, and also about the studies on exploring potential of High Altitude Honey, production of special honey in Kannauj & Hathrus Distts. of UP and use of mustard honey to cure colon cancer during the year 2020-21.

Among the key achievements last year, two World-Class State of the Art Honey Testing Labs, one at NDDB, Anand, Gujarat & one IIHR, Bengaluru, Karnataka, have been approved. The laboratory at Anand has been accredited by NABL and has been inaugurated by Union Minister of Agriculture & Famers Welfare, Govt. of India on 24th July 2020. Now Lab has started testing of Honey samples for all the parameters notified by FSSAI;

10,000 Beekeepers/Beekeeping and Honey Societies/Firms/Companies with 16 lakhs honeybee colonies have been registered with NBB. 5 FPOs of Beekeeper/honey producers in the States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & West Bengal have been formed and launched by Agriculture Ministry on 26th November 2020.

Honey production has increased from 76,150 MTs (2013-14) to 1,20,000 MTs (2019-20) which is 57.58 % increase. Export of honey has increased from 28,378.42 MTs (2013-14) to 59536.74MTs (2019-20) which is 109.80 % increase.