Why in News?

• The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister set up a Beekeeping Development Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor Bibek Debroy.

Recommendations:

• Recognizing honeybees as inputs to agriculture and considering landless Beekeepers as farmers.
• Plantation of bee friendly flora at appropriate places and engaging women self-help groups in managing such plantations.
• Institutionalizing the National Bee Board and rechristening it as the Honey and Pollinators Board of India under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. Such a body would engage in advancing beekeeping through multiple mechanisms such as setting up of new Integrated Bee Development Centres, strengthening the existing ones, creating a honey price stabilization fund and collection of data on important aspects of apiculture.
• Recognition of apiculture as a subject for advanced research under the aegis of Indian Council for Agricultural Research.
• Training and development of beekeepers by state governments.
• Development of national and regional infrastructure for storage, processing and marketing of honey and other bee products.
• Simplifying procedures and specifying clear standards for ease of exporting honey and other bee products.

National Bee Board (NBB):

• Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) registered National Bee Board as a society under the societies registration Act, 1860 in 2000.
• National Bee Board (NBB)was reconstituted (with the secretary as chairman) in June 2006.
• The main objective of the National Bee Board (NBB) is the overall development of beekeeping by promoting scientific beekeeping in India to increase the productivity of crops through pollination and increase the honey production for increasing the income of the Beekeepers/ Farmers.
• Presently NBB is implementing National horticulture mission (NHM) and Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan State (HMNEM).