ADVANCE APICULTURAL TRAINING FOR EXTENSION FUNCTIONARIES AT PAU
Date: Feb 22, 2012
LUDHIANA, FEBRUARY 22:-----
A five-day advance training course on “Bee breeding, mass queen bee rearing techniques and hive products production” has been organised by the Department of Entomology of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) under the aegis of the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) funded project. The course involves the participation of state extension functionaries including the officials of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture and extension scientists working at various Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of the PAU.
Speaking on this occasion, Dr Balwinder Singh, Head, Department of Entomology, said that the course aims at promoting diversification within the apiculture to make beekeeping more profitable. It is an endeavour to keep the innovative and skilled beekeepers abreast of the bee breeding and mass queen bee rearing techniques and to make them rear quality queen bees for their stock multiplication, requeening and commercial purposes including the supply to other beekeepers, he added. The rearing and breeding of quality queen bees and hive products production on commercial scale at beekeepers’ level will give a fillip to the beekeeping and its diversification. He disclosed that more beekeeping training courses will be organised next month for scheduled caste/tribe candidates under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) programme.
Dr P.K. Chhuneja, Principal Investigator of the project and Technical Coordinator of the course, said that the trainees will be imparted practical knowledge on selection of stock, quality drone bees rearing, establishment of mating nuclei, gyne cell grafting, selective breeding, preparing bee packages and on maintaining queen bee banks. He informed that the trainees will be encouraged to persuade beekeepers to rear their own queen bees following rigorous selection and selective breeding, rather than depending on other private firms for supply of queen bees at high prices. Besides, the techniques for the production of other hive products including royal jelly, propolis, pollen and bees wax and techniques for the planned/managed bee pollination of the crops will also be discussed, added Dr Chhuneja
