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Haridwar, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand Agriculture and Horticulture Minister Ganesh Joshi on Tuesday officially inaugurated the office of Girish Dobhal, Vice President of the State Beekeeping Council at Hanumantpuram, Ganganagar, Rishikesh. On this occasion, the minister also planted a fruit tree under the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ campaign and honored various people active in social service.
In his address, Minister Ganesh Joshi said that beekeeping is becoming a powerful means of increasing the income of farmers. This is not only generating additional income from honey production, but also increasing the productivity and quality of crops through cross-pollination. He said that there are immense possibilities of beekeeping in Uttarakhand and the government is determined to expand it.
Minister Joshi informed that at present there are about 8,000 beekeepers in Uttarakhand, who are operating 95,000 colonies and producing 1,900 tonnes of honey annually. Uttarakhand ranks 9th in honey production in the country. Badrinath Van Tulsi honey is in great demand at the national level.
He also informed that the central government has provided in-principle consent of about ₹3,800 crore for the agriculture schemes of the state, for which he thanked Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
The minister said that under the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission, beekeeping is being promoted through scientific methods. Bee boxes, equipment and training are being made available to farmers on subsidy. Women and small farmers are being empowered through special training camps.
Former Cabinet Minister and MLA Premchand Aggarwal, Mayor Shambhu Paswan, Minister of State Girish Doval, Director Horticulture Mission Mahendra Pal, Joint Director Dr. Ratan Kumar, former District President Ravindra Rana, Brijesh Sharma, Manoj Dhyani, Monu Sharma, Pankaj Gupta, Sumit Panwar and many other dignitaries were present in the program.
