GUWAHATI, March 20 - A two-day State level seminar on the theme �Awareness, motivation and technology Transfer in Beekeeping�, commenced in the auditorium of the College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara here today.
The event is being organised jointly by the Department of Horticulture and Food Processing and the Akhil Bharatiya Vikas Sansthan, in collaboration with the National Bee Board under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.
The seminar was inaugurated by KK Mittal, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Department and Agricultural Production Commissioner of the Government of Assam.
In his address, Mittal said that the State government would extend all possible support to the farmers concerned for expansion of beekeeping.
He appealed to the farmers of Assam to come forward and take up beekeeping for doubling their income.
Mowsam Hazarika, Assistant Director of Agriculture conducted the open session. Hazarika said that there are around 25,000 bee species in the world.
�Bees provide important natural products and services. They pollinate flowers and therefore play an important part in food production. Most plants are totally dependent on certain types of bees for reproduction. It is also for this reason that commercial pollination has begun to take shape in the larger agricultural industry,� he said.
He added that of all the bee species, the honeybee is the most economically valuable as it is able to focus on particular plants at a time.
�It does not pollinate randomly because it targets particular plant species in every outing. A single honeybee can pollinate thousands of flowers daily. The bee as a pollinator, supports a number of ecosystem services including food chain development without which a lot of plants would die off,� Hazarika said.
Several dignitaries including Prabin Hazarika, Director of Horticulture and Food Processing; Manjit Talukdar, Joint Director of Agriculture and Chief Executive Officer of Assam Small Farmers Agri Business Consortium; Dr Sarat Saikia, Chief Scientist of the Horticultural Research Station; Arun Mitra, progressive beekeeper; Lila Dutta, progressive beekeeper; Bakul Chandra Saikia, Senior ADO and Bipul Das, Senior ADO, attended the seminar and threw light on different aspects of beekeeping.
Various topics including beekeeping industry, scientific beekeeping, bee product, cropping pattern for beekeeping, methodology of beekeeping, economics of beekeeping, schematic support to beekeeper, among other issues, were covered in the seminar.
About 250 participants from different districts of Assam attended the event.
