Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said the government is working seriously to bring a 'Sweet Revolution' in the country, after inauguration of seven honey testing labs and processing units in five states.
Honey testing labs and processing units at Pulwama, Bandipur and Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir, Tumkur in Karnataka, Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Pune in Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand were unveiled in a virtual mode from Gujarat, an official statement said.
In order to bring qualitative upgradation of domestic honey to attract the world market, the Centre and the State Governments are making concerted efforts and focusing on capacity building of bee keepers for production of honey by adopting scientific techniques, it added.
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"The government is working very seriously under the guidance of the Prime Minister to bring about a "Sweet Revolution" in the country," Tomar said addressing an event organised in Gujarat to commemorate World Bee Day.
Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary said that the government has provided necessary resources along with new technology to the farmers through various schemes for beekeeping. "The government is working on a mission mode to promote beekeeping, so that the income of farmers increases," he said.
Gujarat Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel urged the farmers of the state to adopt scientific beekeeping for better income generation.
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The centrally funded scheme, 'National Beekeeping and Honey Mission' aims to establish five big regional and 100 small honey and other bee products testing laboratories.
Out of which, three world class state-of-the-art laboratories have been set up, whereas 25 small laboratories are in the process of being set up. The Centre is also providing assistance for setting up of processing units.
More than 1.25 lakh metric tonnes of honey is being produced in the country, out of which more than 60,000 tonnes of natural honey is exported, the statement said.
-With PTI Input
