Honeybee farming, which is profitable with small investment and eco-friendlytoo, needs to be promoted as more and more farmers are showing interest in it.
“Odisha was among the rare States, which were producing honey. We have to bring back that glory,” said MSME Minister Prafulla Samal on the occasion of the World Honeybee Day held here on Sunday jointly by the MSME Department and Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB). Samal said one lakh farmers to be enlisted from across the State to be promoted as bee farmers with the financial and technical support from banks and the KVIB.
He further added that Women SHGs to be roped in for the purpose.
“Presently, we have more than 64 lakh women members of 6 lakh SHGs. What we can do is spread the message across to them and convince them about profitability in bee keeping,” said Samal.
KVIB Chairman Tejeswar Parida proposed to start a mission to be named after late Chief Minister Biju Patnaik as "Biju Patnaik Madhu Makhi Yojana" to promote bee keeping. He also proposed for fixing of minimum support price (MSP) for honey in order to motivate farmers. “The Board is also planning to open honey parlours in selected places of the State and promote honey gift packets,” said Parida. MSME Secretary lN Gupta stressed the need for achieving the target of providing bee boxes and other instruments to 10,000 farmers set by the Chief Minister within a short duration. More than 100 farmers from coastal districts participated in the meeting and a select number of them were provided with machinaries.