Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

KVIC Launches Mobile Honey Processing Van to Assist Farmers and Beekeepers

The mobile unit can process up to 300 kg of honey in eight hours and is equipped with a testing laboratory that would instantly examine the quality of honey.
January 9, 2022
bee keeping

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chairman Vinay Kumar Saxena recently launched the country’s first mobile honey-processing van at Sirora village in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The mobile unit can process up to 300 kg of honey in eight hours and is equipped with a testing laboratory that would instantly examine the quality of honey.

The mobile honey-processing van has been designed in-house by KVIC at its Multi-disciplinary Training Centre, Panjokehra, at a cost of Rs.15 lakh. It comes as a major development under KVIC’s Honey Mission, which aims at training beekeepers, distributing bee boxes to farmers and helping rural, educated as well as unemployed youth to earn extra income through beekeeping activities.

In line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Sweet Kranti (sweet revolution) through honey production, the KVIC has come up with this unique innovation to enable beekeepers and farmers get a fair price for their honey production. The van will process beekeepers’ honey at their doorsteps and save them the hassle and the cost of taking the honey to far-off cities for processing. While this will make beekeeping a more profitable business for small beekeepers, it will also maintain purity and quality of the honey, says the official statement from KVIC.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Vinay Kumar Saxena said that the aim of the Honey Mission is to increase the production of honey in the country and raise the income of farmers and beekeepers. Based on the experience of the pilot project, more such mobile honey processing units would be started, especially in the northeastern states, he added.

The mobile honey processing van is expected to benefit beekeepers in rural areas of states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. Beekeepers here will be able to get their honey processed at a nominal fee. The honey-processing unit will consist of a laboratory technician and a technical assistant to test the honey.

Under the Honey Mission, KVIC has so far distributed around 1.60 lakh bee boxes across the country and created more than 40,000 jobs. Only in the Western Uttar Pradesh region where the flora is abundant, KVIC has distributed about 8,000 bee boxes to farmers and beekeepers thereby increasing their income manifold and crop yield through inter-pollination.