Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is playing a crucial role in providing employment to the migrant workers. Minister of State for MSME Pratap Chandra Sarangi, distributed 700 bee boxes to the 70 migrant workers of Bulandshahr and Saharanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh at KVICs training centre in Panjokera in August 2020, under the Honey Mission Programme. The Mission aims to increase India’s honey production as well as the income of the beekeepers.
Promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, KVIC provided them with 5-day training on beekeeping and provided the necessary tool-kit and bee-boxes to them. Besides honey, products such as pollen, bee wax, royal jelly, propolis, and bee venom are also marketable products which will be a profitable proposition for the locals.
Honey Mission
The Honey Mission was launched by KVIC in 2017 with the aim of creating employment for the Adivasis, farmers, unemployed youth, and women, and increasing India’s honey production. Western Uttar Pradesh is one of the most favourable markets for honey production because of having abundant flora, including a variety of crops.
Under the programme, some 1.35 lakh bee boxes have been distributed in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Assam among others, benefitting 13,500 people across the country and producing nearly 8,500 mt honey.