The Director of Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal today inaugurated a two-day district-level seminar on scientific Beekeeping at Government Degree College Ganderbal.
The programme has been organised by the Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department Kashmir under the National Bee and Honey Mission (NBHM).
Chief Agriculture Officer, scientists from SKUAST, Bee Keepers, Farmers, Unemployed youth and other stakeholders attended the programme.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, the Director of Agriculture marked the importance of bee-keeping as a complementary source to the overall income of the farmers. He said that it is encouraging that a large number of youth are taking bee-keeping as a main venture to earn income and livelihood.
He asked the educated youth of the region to come forward and take benefit from the programme and schemes by the department for the promotion of bee-keeping and other allied activities.
The Director said that for the development of bee-keeping, a special project under the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) has been approved by the government. He said that bee-keeping is an off-farm activity and has a potential for employment generation due to wide agro-climatic diversity enabling around the year bee-flora available.
