The 5th Nagaland Honey Bee Day was celebrated under the theme- Bee & Honey Trials, with T.R. Zeliang, Deputy Chief Minister, Planning & Transformation and National Highway at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama on 5th December 2023.
The Chief Guest congratulated the mission and all the winners of Honey Bee farmers both at the State and District levels. He also quoted ‘where there is honey the land is rich.’ Nagaland has a unique age-old tradition of beekeeping practices and has been endowed with the potential to be the epicenter of Apicultural activities due to abundant nectar-rich flowering plants and favorable climatic conditions, rich vegetation and ideal topography.
Under the guidance of the Mission, the trainings on honey production and rearing are being regularly imparted to the villagers. Therefore, the once traditional hobby of beekeeping has been improved and transformed into a livelihood. While the primary objective of the traditional beekeepers is solely for Honey production, however, with the intervention of the NBHM, the by-product benefits such as production of bee wax and the role played by bees in pollination which enhances crop productivity is now sensitized to the people. This has led to many more people taking up beekeeping as primary source for economic sustainability and some as secondary activity to supplement their income. Nagaland has more than 1 lakh beekeepers across the State and the NBHM has added about 25,000 more with proper guidance for beekeeping covering about 500 villages, he mentioned.
The total honey production of the State stands at 440 Metric Tonne (MT) per annum and if the State is to achieve the target of 2000 Metric Tonne (MT) by 2030 as envisioned by the Mission, intensive and concerted efforts should be taken up. The honey produce in the State has unique quality, considering the taste of honey is higher in quality due to the rich flora of the State. The honey produce in the State is organic and much healthier due to non-use of artificial fertilizers.
On demand and supply side, there is still a huge gap between the two as the honey produce in the State is used domestically and does not even meet the domestic demand as the purchase for consumption is growing year by year. Due to poor financial position of the State, we are not in a position to pump in more funds to the Mission for it to grow on a large scale, he said.
With the launching of the 'Bee Tourism' during this Hornbill Festival by the NBHM, he expressed optimism that the first hand experience on the traditional beekeeping and unique practices would encourage and educate the local and non-local tourists. The opening of Honey Hub' here at Kisama, also gives a great avenue to the Beekeeping community to exhibit and sell their products.
He wished and congratulated the NBHM all the best in revolutionizing the Honey production in the State and putting the State in the world map in Honey production.
Earlier, the programme was compered by Chubanungla Shilu, Team Member, NBHM while invocation prayer was offered by Zhavi Kere, Pastor, Kigwema Baptist Church. Welcome address was delivered by Sushil Kumar Patel, IAS, Commr. & Secy, APC & Mission Director, NBHM. Keynote address by Obed Quinker, Chairman, NBHM. A special number was presented by Thejangunuo, Thejano, Longshithung & Nounengu.
Short speeches were delivered by Som Kamei, IPoS, Planning Advisor, North East Council (NEC), Ministry of DoNER, GOI, Naveen Patle, Addl. Commr. MIDH Ex. Dir NBB & Dir CIH (Medziphema), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, GOI. Dr. Collin Z. Renthlei, Advisor (Technical), NECTAR Department of Science & Technology, GOl. Abhijeet Dutta, Marketing Head NER, TRIFED, Regional Office Guwahati, followed by felicitation of awardees and release of book on Award winners' stories". Vote of thanks by Sentiwapang Aier NCS, Additional Secretary to CM & Team Leader, NBHN
(Thungti Chang & L. Shahoto Yimchunger IA)
