In lines with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to double the income of farmers, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) distributed bee boxes to farmers in south Gujarat as part of the ‘Honey Mission’.
The KVIC gave 1750 bee boxes among 175 tribal people in the remotest Soldhara, Famaswada, Motaponda, Vaghai, Nisrana and Kagsala villages in Valsad district of Gujarat. While distributing the bee-boxes, KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said that besides production of 30,000 kilograms of high-quality honey from these bee boxes in the area having abundant flora and fauna, bee-keeping would open many job avenues for the unemployed youths and aspiring young entrepreneurs.
“Being the nodal agency of Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the KVIC would provide loans for setting up units of processing, packaging, labelling and marketing for the honey,” said Saxena, adding that the development initiatives taken by KVIC in Valsad have given a ray of hope for tribal people and they are willing to be the part of development process. The bee-keeping will also enhance the rich flora and fauna of the Valsad area through cross-pollination, he added.
KVIC had decided to distribute at least 7,000 bee-boxes among the farmers in Gujarat by the end of this year. So far nearly 3,000 bee-boxes have been distributed among the SC/ST villagers of Valsad, Navasari, Tapi, Dahod and Narmada districts. More such bee-boxes will be distributed among the villagers in Banaskantha, Patan and Bhuj/Kutch districts, under our ‘Honey Mission’ project in Gujarat.
Following Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Sweet Revolution’ at a function of Banas Dairy a couple of years ago, the KVIC came into an action mode with its enthusiastic ‘Honey Mission’ with a target of distributing 1,30,000 bee boxes before November 2018 across the nation – right from Narmada valley area of Gujarat to Kaziranga forest in Assam and hilly region of Jammu & Kashmir to dense forests of Mysore. So far KVIC has distributed 29000 bee boxes to farmers and entrepreneurs in the country.