Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Jan 22: Department of Zoology, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Rajouri, organised three- day Training Programme on Apiculture Entrepreneurship, sponsored by National Mission on Himalayan Studies, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi.
Prof Iqbal Parwez, Dean School of Biosciences and Biotechnology said that there is great scope of Apiculture in district Rajouri and invited the local entrepreneurs to benefit from the state of art facilities of the Apiculture Centre of BGSBU. He said that the university is committed towards socio economic empowerment of the local communities.
Workshop was inaugurated by Dr Asghar Ali Shah, Head Department of Zoology, who said that beekeeping has positive ecological consequences. He said that bees play an important role in the pollination of many flowering plants, thus increasing the yield of certain crops such as sunflower and various fruits and there is a need for promoting the local honey at national and international levels.
Sajad Hussain Parey, the Principal Investigator of the project discussed about the training programme and briefed the participants about the importance of honey bees in sustenance of the biodiversity in the region. He assured the participants for providing one colony of honeybee each as a start-up unit along with small beekeeping items.
The workshop was attended by Farmers from Dhanore village of district Rajouri who showed keen interest in starting the Apiculture as a small skill development unit.
Chief Agriculture Officer Rajouri, Mahesh Verma, Apiculture Development Officer Mohd Rafiq, Assistant Professors of the Department of Zoology, including Dr Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, Dr Salim Reshi, Dr Sajad Ahmed Khan and Shanaz Anjam also interacted with farmers during three days.