AINP ON VPM- TRAINING PROGRAM ON SCIENTIFIC BEE KEEPING FROM 03.09.2023 TO 09.09.2023

All India Network Project on Vertebrate Pest Management unit of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad under National Bee Board and National Bee keeping and Honey Mission organized seven days training program on Scientific beekeeping. The training was commenced with the welcome speech of Dr. V.Sunitha, Scientist &Principal Investigator of Honey bee Project. A total of 25 members including the organic farmers, business persons, young students and unemployed youth attended the training programme. The PI of the project introduced and extended a warm welcome to the Chief guest Dr. P.Raghuramireddy, Director of Research, PJTSAU, Guest of honour, Dr.M.Malla Reddy Associate Director of Research of Southern Telangana Zone, another Guest of honour Dr.S.J.Rahman Senior Professor & University Head, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad and Dr.V.Ravinder Reddy, Principal Scientist & Head All India Network Project on Vertebrate Pest Management respectively. During the inaugural session Dr. Dr.V.Ravinder Reddy, Principal Scientist & Head, All India Network Project on Vertebrate Pest Management has presented the objectives of the project and training programme on scientific bee keeping. Dr.M.Malla Reddy Associate Director of Research of Southern Telangana Zone emphasized about the business opportunities of beekeeping as income generator and Dr.S.J.Rahman Senior Professor & University Head, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad stressed on the key role played by honey bees in cross pollination of crops. Chief guest of the programme Dr.P.Raghurami Reddy, Director of Research, PJTSAU, highlighted the conservation and role of honey bees and their byproducts and also he suggested the training organizers concentrate more on practical classes than theory for the benefit of trainees. During the inaugural session book let on scientific beekeeping was released by all the guests on the dias. During the training program Dr.M.Rajashekar, Dr.V.Sunitha, Dr.C.V.Sameer Kumar, Dr.G.Snehalatha, Dr.M.Uday Kumar, Sri.P.Ravinder, Sri.Ravi Kumar and Dr.Waseem imparted training to the participants. All participants learned about the scope of beekeeping, types of honey bees, identification of bees and their colony organization, colony division, specific management of honey bees, diseases and insect pests, and economics of beekeeping. All participants visited the Honey Bee unit at Apiculture Technology Center and Agri biodiversity park of PJTSAU to learn about the Apis mellifera and Apis cerena and also they observed how to differentiate between queen, workers and drones and also they were trained the lifecycle of each entity of honey bee colony inside the brood comb and volunteered in cleaning the boxes at both the sites. One day field visit was conducted to all the participants to commercial bee keeper Smt.Anusha and all the participants interacted with her and answered their queries on how to become successful in their businesses and Economics and marketing of Honey and other byproducts. At the end of the training, an official closing ceremony was held at the training venue AINPVPM. Dr.S.J.Rahman Senior Professor & University Head, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad chaired the event. Dr.V.Sunitha, Scientist & PI of the project presented the outcomes of the training. Dr.V.Ravinder Reddy, Principal Scientist & Head, AINPVPM, PJTSAU emphasized the scope of the project and future collaboration opportunities with participants. Finally distributed the certificates to the participants for successfully completing the training.