Islamabad
President Dr Arif Alvi has called for adopting mod-ern beekeeping techniques and advanced skills to enhance the yield and quality of organic honey pro-duced in the country.
Chairing a follow-up meeting on beekeeping and honey production on Wednesday, the president emphasised on providing loans to beekeepers under Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme in addition to impart advanced training through Na-tional Vocational and Technical Training Commis-sion (NAVTTC) and Technical Education & Voca-tional Training Authority (TEVTA).
The president said that Pakistan has enormous potential to be one of the largest producers of honey as its climate and vegetation are suitable for the production of premium quality honey.
He also asked the stakeholders to initiate steps for facilitating and guiding the beekeepers by arranging training courses and workshops for them.
He underscored the need for strengthening and improving the beekeeping sector as it had great potential to provide employment to the people as well as earn foreign exchange.
He expressed the hope that the government’s Ten Billion Tree Tsu-nami programme would help improve the beekeep-ing environment of the country to enhance the pro-duction of quality honey.
The president asked the relevant stakeholders to address the issues of the beekeeping sector enabling them to increase the production and exports of honey.
He also asked the stakeholders to initiate steps for facilitating and guiding the beekeepers by arranging training courses and workshops for them.
The meeting was attended by All Pakistan Bee-keepers and Honey Dealers Association (APBHDA) President Naeem Qasmi, Pakistan Agricultural Re-search Council Chairman Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan, KP Environment and Wildlife Department Secretary of Forestry Islam Zaib, Secretary Agricul-ture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative Depart-ment of KPK Muhammad Israr and other senior officials of the government of Pakistan.
It is pertinent to mention here that commercial beekeeping is fast becoming a thriving business in rural areas of the country.
According to the All Pakistan Beekeepers Trade and Exporters Associa-tion (APBTEA), besides providing new job oppor-tunities to thousands of men and women, the busi-ness is helping the country earn foreign exchange through exports, mainly to Middle Eastern coun-tries.—TLTP
