Rajouri: Department of Zoology, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Rajouri organised three days Training Programme on Apiculture Entrepreneurship sponsored by National Mission on Himalayan Studies, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi .
Prof. Iqbal Parwez, Dean School of Biosciences and Biotechnology applauded the Department for taking a lead in bringing academia, community and industry together for greater awareness and economic prosperities of the local communities. He whole heartedly welcomed the local communities to actively participate in the Apiculture industry and ensured the people of the area for any type of assistance from the University in establishing their small scale industries. Prof. Iqbal said that there is great scope of Apiculture in District Rajouri and invited the local entrepreneurs to benefit from the state of art facilities of the Apiculture Centre of BGSBU. Prof Iqbal said that the university is committed to wards socio economic empowerment of the local communities.
Workshop was inaugurated by Dr.Asghar Ali Shah, Head Department of Zoology. Dr. Shah said that beek eeping has positive ecological consequences. He said that bees play an important role in the pollination of many flowering plants, thus increasing the yield of certain crops such as sunflower and various fruits and there is a need for promoting the local honey at national and international levels. Sajad Hussain Parey, the Principal Investigator of the project discussed about the training program and briefed the participants about the importance of honey bees in sustenance of the biodiversity intheregion. He assured the participants for providing one colony of Honey bee each as a start-up unit along with small bee keeping Items. The workshop was attended by Farmers from Dhanore village of district Rajouri who showed keen interest in starting the Apiculture as a small skill development unit. Chief Agriculture Officer Rajouri Mahesh Verma, Apiculture Development Officer Mohd Rafiq , Assistant Professors of the Department of Zoology Including Dr. Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, Dr.Salim Reshi, Dr.Sajad Ahmed Khan and Ms. Shanaz Anjam also interacted with farmers during three days.
