Chairperson J&K KVIB, Dr. Hina Shafi Bhat, today presided over SFURTI Purchase Committee meeting at the Civil Secretariat, Jammu.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Jagdish Chander, Secretary/CEO J&K KVIB, senior officers of the Board and SKUAST Kashmir (Technical Agency).

During the meeting, it was informed that three Beekeeping Clusters being established with an assistance of Rs. 3.80 crore are at various stages of implementation at Samba, Doda and Ramban, which shall directly benefit more than one thousand Beekeepers from the cluster areas. It was further informed that with implementation of these clusters, there shall be improvement in earnings of Bee-Keepers by better marketing, production and management practices besides facilities like Processing, Bottling, Packing & Testing of Honey shall be provided in the CFCs of these clusters.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Hina Shafi Bhat enjoined upon all the concerned agencies to work in a mission-mode and ensure that all the spade work for undertaking various interventions under hard, soft and thematic interventions is expedited. She directed the officers to expedite and ensure that SPV formation in respect of Kashur Maunch Beekeeping Cluster HMT Srinagar is completed saying that cluster must be ready for inauguration by March 2025.

It was informed that the Board is exploring the possibility to position its honey as ultra-premium honey in the market and ensure that it is exported to outside India also.

Dr Hina assured that all necessary measures would be undertaken to ensure time-bound implementation of SFURTI clusters across Jammu and Kashmir. She also stressed the importance of close coordination among the concerned agencies for the early establishment of the clusters.