New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) Agriculture science firm FMC India has partnered with Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GB Pant University) to develop entrepreneurship among rural women through beekeeping.
FMC Corporation is a global agricultural sciences company dedicated to helping growers produce food, feed, fibre and fuel for an expanding world population while adapting to a changing environment.
In a statement issued on Thursday, FMC India said that a project named ‘MadhuShakti’, spanning three years, is planned for the rural area of Uttarakhand.
As part of the project, rural women will be selected from Sitarganj, Kotabagh, and the towns of Almora and Ranikhet and trained in beekeeping.
The produce from the farmers’ beehives will be procured by the university’s Honey Bee Research and Training Centre (HBRTC) through a revolving fund set up to facilitate payment to farmers and market products from the hives. The project will also closely monitor pollinator behaviour, generating a wealth of scientific knowledge that will benefit beekeepers across the country.
FMC India President Ravi Annavarapu said, “Our objective with project MadhuShakti is to transform the lives of rural families by empowering women in agriculture with sustainable business opportunities”.
The success of this project will not only encourage women farmers in India to see beekeeping as a fruitful endeavour but also address the global concern around safeguarding pollinator populations under intensive agriculture, he added.
A K Shukla, Vice-Chancellor of GB Pant University, said, “Beekeeping is one of the most sustainable business opportunities for rural women in the state to generate additional income with minimal investment and multi-fold benefits. The state’s rich biodiversity will allow the bees to thrive, produce a wider selection of honey and keep the ecology well balanced”.
The state currently produces only 12,500 tonnes of honey.
FMC said its innovative crop protection solutions – including biologicals, crop nutrition, digital and precision agriculture – enable growers, crop advisers and turf and pest management professionals to address their toughest challenges economically while protecting the environment. PTI MJH MJH BAL BAL
