Honey Mission and Sweet Revolution
For Prelims: Honey mission, beekeeping, sweet revolution.
For Mains: Sweet revolution, promotion of apiculture, and rise in the farmers' income.
Why in the News?
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has distributed 1 lakh and 75,000 bee boxes under the Honey Mission after offering beekeeping training to 17 thousand 500 beneficiaries nationwide.
The top ten states that produced the most honey in 2021–22 were Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka, according to the National Horticulture Board (NHB).
What details about Honey Mission are important to know?
In conjunction with the "Sweet Revolution," the government has begun the "Honey Mission." KVIC introduced it in 2017. In order to increase crop productivity and provide farmers and beekeepers with a pollination service, Sweet Revolution promotes beekeeping.
The Sweet Kranti Mission wants to give the Adivasis, farmers, unemployed youth, and women jobs while increasing India's honey production.
Through the production of bee boxes and honey extractors, the Mission has added more than 10,000 new jobs in addition to about 25,000 additional person-days.
The ambitious initiative to promote apiculture, or "beekeeping," has been started by the Indian government.
It aims to hasten the production of premium honey and related goods.
The demand for premium honey has grown over time due to the perception of honey as a naturally nourishing good.
In addition to being widely used in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food, beverage, beauty products, and others, royal jelly, beeswax, pollen, and other apiculture products are also widely used.
Major issues that beekeepers must address include scientific beekeeping, the minimum support price (read more about the minimum support price here), quality assurance, branding, testing, organic certification, etc.
In accordance with the Honey Mission, KVIC offers farmers or beekeepers the following:
Acquiring practical experience in honeybee colony inspection,
Along with managing bee colonies throughout the year, bee enemies and diseases must be identified and managed.
familiarity with apicultural tools and
Purification of wax and honey extraction
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) recently unveiled the country's first mobile honey processing van in a village in Uttar Pradesh.
With the aid of a mobile honey processing van, beekeepers will not have to shell out cash for transportation or deal with the inconvenience of transporting their honey to distant processing facilities. This effort (Sweet Revolution) is being made in support of "Sweet Kranti."
Challenges of the Honey Mission
Domestic Obstacles:
Training in financial services and credit facilities
Ensuring need-based training & up-skilling
Sensitivity to the need for high standards
Increasing assistance with seasonal management and migration
Cluster-based approach and existing FPO building schemes convergence
formalizing brand recognition and market connections
Obstacles to exports:
Increased freight expenses
Higher costs associated with nuclear magnetic resonance tests (used to check for adulterations and other manipulations).
During the busiest season for exporting honey, containers are scarce.
Need for export incentives.
Why is Sweet Revolution important to know?
About:
The Government of India has launched an ambitious initiative to promote apiculture called "beekeeping."
The National Beekeeping and Honey Mission, a central sector program run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, was introduced by the government in 2020 as a supplement to the Sweet Revolution.
Aim:
The objective is to hasten the production of high-quality honey and associated goods.
Since honey is regarded as a naturally nutritious product, the demand for high-quality honey has increased over time.
Other apiculture products, like royal jelly, beeswax, pollens, etc., are widely used in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food, drink, beauty products, etc.
Significance:
By utilizing technology, this Mission will guarantee bee conservation, halt disease outbreaks or the destruction of bee colonies, and provide both a high-quality and a plentiful supply of apiculture products.
Using farming techniques, the best honey and other products will be produced for the domestic and international markets.
Technology application has emerged as a key enabler for socioeconomic growth in the low-investment, highly-skilled beekeeping business model.
Increasing crop productivity through beekeeping will double farmers' incomes, ensure food security and bee conservation, and create jobs.
