World Bee Day
World Bee Day is celebrated on 20 May. It is celebrated every year on this day.
The main reason for this is that on this day in the year 1734, Anton Jana, the pioneer of ‘beekeeping’, was born.
As a result of the proposal submitted by Slovenia, May 20 was declared as World Bee Day by the United Nations in the year 2017.
This year the theme of World Bee Day 2022 is ‘Be Engaged: Celebrating the Diversity of Bees and Beekeeping Systems’.
Government efforts:
- The government is promoting beekeeping as part of its goal of doubling farmers’ income.
- Recently, Rs 500 crore has been allocated by the government for beekeeping under the ‘Atmanirbhar Abhiyan’.
- As a part of the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM), four modules have been created by the National Bee Board to provide training and 30 lakh farmers have been trained in beekeeping. Financial assistance is also being provided to them by the government.
Sweet Revolution:
- An ambitious initiative called Meethi Kranti is being run by the Government of India to promote beekeeping.
- The National Beekeeping and Honey Mission was launched by the government in the year 2020 (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare) to promote the sweet revolution.
- The National Mission on Beekeeping and Honey aims to set up 5 large regional and 100 small honey and other bee products testing laboratories.
- India is included in the top five countries of the world among honey producing countries.
- According to the Economic Survey, the export of honey has increased by about 110 percent, between 2013-14 to 2019-20.
Source – The Hindu
