ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) organized a special capacity building programme for the tribal women shareholders of the Arunodhaya Mahila Kazhangium Okkootta ® FPO formed by DHAN Foundation exclusively for ‘bee keeping’ in South India, on 4.7.2023, in collaboration with ICAR-KVK, Hirehalli of ICAR-IIHR and DHAN Foundation at Gulur village of Tumkur district. The main purpose of the programme is to build the capacity of the women shareholders, so that they indulge in income generation activity, through ‘bee keeping’.
Mr. KN Jagadish, SMS (Agrl. Extension), KVK, Hirehalli, welcomed the participants and Dr Loganandhan, Principal Scientist and Head, KVK, Hirehalli, gave introduction about benefits of bee keeping, initiatives of DHAN foundation in establishing the FPO exclusively for bee keeping with all women shareholders and role of KVK, Hirehalli in that noble cause.
Prof. Sanjay Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), while speaking about the benefits of bee keeping advised the FPO to go for marketing of not only the honey but also the wax and the venom of honey bees, which very valuable products for cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. He suggested the DHAN foundation to establish a small museum of bee keeping activities, so that that will motivate the shareholders of the FPOs to involve with enthusiasm in bee keeping activities and also to go for crop-based bee keeping activity and scheduling of bee activity, so that the marketing of honey from specific sources will be easy for the FPO.
Dr R Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Nodal Officer, TSP spoke about ICAR-IIHR TSP activities. Dr PVR Reddy, Principal Scientist and Head, Plant Protection spoke about practices of bee keeping and the benefits of bee keeping. This session was followed by that of Mr. Vasantha Kumar, Regional Director, Dhan Foundation, who spoke about the significance of women shareholders who constitute the FPO and need to vibrantly do the honey production and marketing. Then, Mr. Jagadish from Department of Horticulture, Tumkur gave skill training on scientific bee keeping to the women farmers. The programme came to an end with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Bhagyashree, Scientist, Crop Protection, who has coordinated the programme in association with Dr. N. Loganandhan, Head, Mr. KN Jagadish and Mr. KS Shashidhar, KVK, Hirehalli.
118 women shareholders of the FPO participated in the programme and benefitted. These TSP beneficiaries were distributed with bee hives worth of more than 5 lakhs. They felt satisfied with the programme and opined that visits by the scientists to the fields are required to guide them towards good practices of scientific bee keeping. After the programme, there was a field visit by the scientists to the bee keeping plots maintained by the TSP Beneficiaries in order to guide them about best practices of bee keeping.
