Pushing PM’s concept of Sweet Revolution ahead, a World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory at Anand in Gujarat was inaugurated by Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar through Video-Conferencing along with his team.
The Lab has been established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) which has been support by National Bee Board (NBB) in this venture. Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying was also present on the occasion.
The Agriculture Minister emphasized on increasing bee colonies, honey bee production, processing, marketing and export, which would significantly contribute in GDP and boosting the rural economy.
Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary and senior officers of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare and Department of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying were present on the occasion.
Thanking Prime Minister Shri Narendra for his vision to usher in sweet revolution in the country Tomar stated that the Government is committed towards increasing the income of farmers and the Bee-keeping enterprise has to play a major role in supplementing the income of farmers.
The Ministry has taken up several activities to promote bee keeping under ‘Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)’‘National Mission for Beekeeping’being implemented through National Bee Board and the States, Tomar added.
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare has approved the National Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) for a period of 2 years, he informed.
The Union Agriculture Minister complimented National Dairying Development Board, National Bee Board, Khadi & Village Industries Corporation, policy makers, farmers & bee-keepers for their significant contribution and continued support in this endeavor.
Speaking on the occasion, Giriraj Singh, said adulteration is a major problem in honey production and honey is being adulterated with high fructose corn syrup or rice, tapioca, sugarcane and beet syrup that are cheaper and resemble honey in physico-chemical properties.
Giriraj said the establishment of this Honey Testing Laboratory will help for quality production of honey and its export to other countries. He also suggested to promote the cultivation of flora-based crops to enhance the production of honey & honey bee products.
Based on the parameters notified by FSSAI, the NDDB has set-up this world class lab with all the facilities and developed the test methods/protocols, which have been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).FSSAI has now notified new standards of Honey, Bee Wax and Royal Jelly.
The Union Agriculture Minister also inaugurated ‘Two Days Online Training Programme on Scientific Honey-bee Production’ being conducted by National Dairying Development Board(NDDB) and extended compliments to the trainees for their participation in the said programme.