Haryana Agricultural University And Indian Oil Corporation Join Hands To Support Rural Community
Landless labourers, unemployed and uneducated men and women farmers of Haryana will now get help in setting up a beekeeping unit
By Jag Mohan Thaken
Landless labourers, unemployed and uneducated men and women farmers of Haryana will now get financial and technical help in setting up a beekeeping unit. For this, an MOU has been signed between Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar and Indian Oil Corporation Limited in the presence of Vice Chancellor, Prof. B.R.Kamboj, Dr. Jeetram Sharma, Director of Research on behalf of the University and SK Kanojia, Executive Director, Northern Regional Pipeline on behalf of Indian Oil Corporation Limited.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice-Chancellor Prof. B.R. Kamboj said that Haryana is one of the leading States in honey production in India as it has varying Agro-climatic conditions and crop diversity in different zones. In Haryana, where average land holding is less than 0.75 ha, beekeeping can provide better food, balanced nutrition and additional income to small and marginal farmers and self-employment to unemployed youth. In addition to the revenue obtained from honey and other bee products, pollination activates of honeybees will contribute to the increased crop yield to the extent of 20-80 per cent in most cultivated crops through cross pollination.
S.K. Kanojia, Executive Director, Northern Regional Pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. said that Beekeeping enterprise is suitable for people from all walks of life as a hobby, subsidiary occupation for supplementing income or as a whole-time job for self-employment. He hoped that this MoU with CCSHAU, Hisar will help to achieve goals of Corporate Social Responsibility. He further said that this collaboration will usher a real ‘Madhu Kranti’ in Haryana as also to fulfil the goal of Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana of doubling farmers income.
Dr. Sunita Yadav, Head and Project Officer, Department of Entomology, said that four districts of Haryana have been selected in the initial phase under the Madhukranti scheme, on the theme of sustainable economic and nutritional security by adopting scientific beekeeping and diversification in various districts of Haryana. These districts include Karnal, Kurukshetra, Jhajjar and Sonipat. A total of 120 unemployed youth and women from these four districts will be given training related to beekeeping for setting up small beekeeping units with the supervision and help of Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
On this occasion, apart from Deputy General Manager, Neeraj Singh and Manager Anurag Jaiswal from Northern Regional Pipeline, OSD Dr. Atul Dhingra, Dean PGS Dr. K.D. Sharma, Co-Project Coordinator in the Department of Entomology, Dr. Surendra Singh Yadav, Dr. Manoj Kumar, Dr. Harish were also present.
