Honey parlour to be opened in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to boost honey production and encourage honey bee farmers, Odisha Khadi and Village Industries Board (OKVIB) is planning to open honey parlour across the state.

The move will provide a suitable market to the honey bee farmers and make availability of pure honey in the market for the consumers, informed OKVIB Chairman Tejeswar Parida here on Sunday.

The honey production could rise in Odisha if there would be MSP fixed for the honey bee farmers and people prefer to gift honey box instead of sweet when visiting their friends and relatives’ houses, opined Parida attending a programme on the occasion of World Honey Bee Day at Jayadev Bhawan in Bhubaneswar yesterday.

The Khadi and Village Industries Board in association with the horticulture department has made an action plan to create 100 honey bee farmers in each block in the districts suitable for honey farming.

A honey refinery plant with advanced equipment will be functional on premises of Khadi Board at Gandamunda in Bhubaneswar in next three months. The plant is being built at expenditure of Rs 45 lakh.

A proposal has been sent to the government to name the honey farming scheme after late Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.

The honey bee farming is made extensively in the districts including Gajapati, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Rayagada and Nuapada.

The government has wide range of planning to encourage the farmers for the honey bee farming. As part of the decision, a group of 20 members is providing training to people in various districts for seven days apart from providing each farmer five honey boxes, one smoke device and one honey release device at 50% subsidy. Under the programme, total 1200 beneficiaries of nine districts have been provided training in the past two years.

Reports said that OKVIB has earned around Rs 40 lakh by selling the pure honey directly collected from the farmers within three years.