RAWALPINDI – Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR), Department of Entomology organised three day training workshop on “Apiculture Orientation Programme” with an aim to create awareness of value-added products of honeybees like honey, royal jelly, pollens, propolis beeswax etc and to train the trainers of the future for preparation of foundation sheets, queen bee rearing and royal jelly production for commercial use here on Saturday.
The training workshop attended by postgraduate and undergraduate students of the university, researchers and commercial bee farmers, provided an excellent orientation for beekeeping as a hobby and profitable enterprise for honey production for the landless and poor farmers as well as help in the diversification of farm production system through cross-pollination resulting in enhanced crop productivity.
Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, PMAS-AAUR was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony of the workshop. In his address, he said that Pakistani honey was rated quite high abroad especially in the Middle East countries and beekeeping products other than honey include pollen, royal jelly, propolis, beeswax and bee venom have innumerable commercial uses in both national and international markets. He further said that promotion of beekeeping at all levels will help to enhance family income and foreign exchange earnings through export of bee products.
He also informed the gathering that in developed countries, honeybee colonies were rented by the fruit/crop growers for pollination purpose for diversification of farm production system. Contrary to that, honeybee farmers in our country are facing serous difficulty in temporary placement of honeybee colonies near crop or orchard fields or forests.
Dr Niaz Ahmad further said that technical expertise and practical training was necessary for beekeeping and urged the University faculty to start teaching, training and research work on honeybee breeding and management for production of honey and other by-products as well their utilization for pollination.
He appreciated the efforts of Department of Entomology for organizing this workshop and hoped that Department will continue its efforts in future by organizing such type of trainings. He said that such types of workshops are quite helpful for professional education and practice, applied research for strengthening the research capabilities and setting up small micro-enterprises in various parts of the country. At the end, Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad distributed certificates among the participants of the workshop.
On the occasion, Dr Elizabeth Stephan, Director, Institute of Honeybee Research Institute, National Agriculture Research Centre, Islamabad, Dr. Safdar Ali, Dean, Faculty of Crop and Food Sciences, Dr Rashid Mehmood, Principal Scientific Officer, Mr Naveed Ahmad Qureshi, a progressive bee farming grower & researcher and Dr Muhammad Asif Aziz also addressed the participants and gave a brief introduction of beekeeping in Pakistan. Speakers also elaborated the diseases & mites and their management faced by honeybee farming.