Maharashtra Rajya Khadi Board Recognises Excellence In Apiculture On World Honeybee Day

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Maharashtra Rajya Khadi and Village Industries Board distributed the Madhu Mitra and Madhu Sakhi awards on Wednesday to mark World Honey Bee Day at a function held in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

The programme was organised at Sant Eknath Rang Mandir under the chairmanship of Ravindra Sathe, chairman of the Maharashtra Rajya Khadi and Village Industries Board.

Chief Executive Officer Laxman Raut, Deputy CEO Rajkumar Dangar, Nityanand Patil and several other officials were present during the event.

The awards were presented to bee breeders in two categories — excellence awards and special honour awards. Four bee breeders received excellence awards for their contribution to apiculture and honey production.

The recipients of the excellence awards were Dnyaneshwar Malile from Latur, Ganesh Burkul from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Rajendra Das Bairagi from Buldhana and Shewta Wayal from Pune.

Special honour awards were given to Chandrakant Tare from Thane, Sanjay Marne from Pune, Dayawan Patil from Kolhapur and Vidyanand Ahire from Jalgaon.

Officials of the board, including Nityanand Patil, Vasant Chaudhary, Raju Tayade, Yogesh Pawar, Digambar Sutrave and Shankarrao Chate, were also felicitated during the programme.

Addressing the gathering, CEO Laxman Raut guided bee breeders on modern beekeeping practices and extended greetings on the occasion of World Honey Bee Day.

Chairman Ravindra Sathe said bee conservation plays an important role in protecting nature and increasing honey production. He said the sector has also helped generate local employment opportunities and supported tourism activities.

Sathe added that the board has been working for the past 65 years to implement employment-orientated schemes and support small and medium-scale entrepreneurs. He appealed to people to encourage the use of handloom and khadi products along with honey-based cosmetics, oils, soaps and shampoos.

In the second session of the programme, director Raghunath Narayankar gave detailed information about training programmes related to the honey industry, equipment distribution and honey product manufacturing.

He also spoke about honey forests, information centres, branding and mapping of honey products as part of efforts to strengthen the beekeeping sector in the state.