Jun 28, 2021
Vice Chancellor SKUAST-J&K, Dr. J. P. Sharma was Chief Guest, while Dr. Balraj Singh, Project Coordinator, AICRP (Honeybee and Pollinators), New Delhi was guest of honour during the programme.
The Vice Chancellor, in his inaugural address, exhorted that there is a need for convergence of the UT department and SKUAST-Jammu for providing maximum benefit to the beekeeping community. Beekeeping can be started with minimal investment and without any land requirement. Beekeeping is a very lucrative business with a very short repayment of one year. He stressed on the diversification in beekeeping, quality control of bee products, branding and packaging which can supplement and complement the income of the beekeepers. Dr. Balraj Singh, Project Coordinator, New Delhi stated that there are about 2.5 lakh beekeepers in the country having 35 lakh bee colonies. The honey production in India during 2020-21 was 1.22 thousand metric tons. The bee colonies requirement for pollination o
The Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI) has launched a nationwide investigation into a widespread local honey adulteration scandal and is mulling ‘better’ test methods – but researchers are calling for the agency to take more ‘stronger, public action’ before the situation worsens.
The honey adulteration scandal was recently triggered when Indian research organisation Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) published a report revealing how 77% of local honey samples tested were found to be adulterated with sugar syrup – with many of these samples coming from big, established honey brands such as Dabur and Patanjali.
“A total of 13 honey brands were tested, [eight being] big brands and five niche brands. Overall, 17 out of 22 samples (77%) [of local honey] were found to be adulterated,” CSE said in the original report.