Participants with officials and resource persons during the training programme held at School of Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development, Medziphema on February 16.
Medziphema, February 20 (MExN): One-day training programme on ‘scientific meliponiculture and apiculture for increasing farmer's income and entrepreneurship development’ was organised by All India Co-ordinated Research Project at School of Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development, Medziphema on February 16.
The training was sponsored by AICRP Honeybees & Pollinators under NEH Programme of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, GOI. More than 125 farmers from five different districts of the state attended the training.
The inaugural programme was chaired by Prof L Daiho, Dean, SAS, Nagaland University, Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof Akali Sema and Former Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof Aleminla Ao graced the training programme as special guests. Invitees from different institutes Dr Watimongla Jamir, Principal IETC and Director SAMETI, Dr Stephan S Hannah, Senior Scientist NRC Mithun and other officials attended the programme.
In the welcome address and opening remarks, Dr Avinash Chauhan, Principal Investigator, AICRP Honeybees & Pollinators, SAS, NU briefed about the status and role of honeybees and other pollinators in maintaining the agro ecosystems and potential of scientific beekeeping in increasing Farmer's income.
In a short speech, Prof Akali Sema provided insights about the achievements of the AICRP Honeybees and Pollinators and deliberated on scientific beekeeping. Prof Aleminla Ao put light on the genesis of AICRP Honeybees and Pollinators scheme and the milestones achieved in the last 15 years. She maintained that bees are very important for the sustenance of human beings and other life on earth and how the Beekeeping could be taken as an entrepreneurship venture.
Dr Watimongla Jamir stressed on the development of entrepreneurs in different field of agriculture and horticulture. She discussed the natural farming and integrated farming systems for better sustainability.
The training covered topics on apiculture for entrepreneurship development, wild bees and their role in management of agro ecosystems, bee biology and equipments where the importance of using scientific bee boxes and other bee equipment over traditional ones for scientific management of apis cerana and apis mellifera. The participants were enlightened on management practices for quality honey production, proper storage of bee products, labeling and marketing for getting better prices and increasing income.
Deliberations on quality production of different products derived from bees, honey, bee wax, pollen, royal jelly, bee venom and propolis were made and stressed on the value addition of honey and other bee products. The participants were also sensitised on the conservation of honeybees and other pollinators which indirectly and directly help in increasing the crop productivity. Queen rearing and its benefits for colony multiplication were discussed in detail.
The technical session was chaired by Dr Pankaj Neog, Associate Professor, Department of Entomology SAS NU. Different topics on scientific meliponiculture and apiculture were discussed and deliberated by the resource persons. The resource persons were Prof Ataur Rahman, former HOD Entomology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat; Prof MK Deka, Principal Scientist & PI AICRP HB&P AAU, Jorhat Assam, Dr Otto S Awomi, Assistant Professor (B.Voc), LBC, Vihokhu and Dr Avinash Chauhan, PI, AICRP HB&P SAS NU Medziphema.
The training concluded with the distribution of bee equipment and certificates.
