Prime Minister Imran Khan will be participating, as Chief Guest, in the Launching Ceremony of Billion Tree Honey Initiative today being held in Islamabad.
This initiative is part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of a Clean & Green Pakistan. It aims at promoting tree plantation to support production of Honey in the country under Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP).
Accordingly, plantation of plants including Kao, Phulai, Ber, Kikar and other bee flora is being encouraged under TBTTP. Meanwhile an exclusive analysis was conducted of Honey Production in the country to device a mechanism for encouraging promotion of bee flora, improving quality of honey production, providing livelihood to the bee keepers and sustain the activity through provision of financial resources.
It is estimated that about 10,000 bee keepers are using 300,000 colonies for producing 7,500 metric tons of honey annually. The potential can be enhanced to produce 70,000 metric tons of honey from the same harvest by using modern bee keeping gears, training on latest techniques, standardization / certification of the product and intensive marketing. It is anticipated that marketing of 70,000 metric tons of honey will generate an income of about Rs. 35-43 billion in the national economy and provide about 87,000 green jobs.
The ‘Bilion Tree Honey” Initiative is being launched by the MoCC as a coherent effort of different Ministries/ Agencies to promote Apiculture in the country. The existing forestry resource available in the Protected Areas and the new areas being planted / regenerated under TBTTP till 2022-23 is estimated to expand up to about 5.5 million hectares. The requisite forest resource shall be used by the bee keepers to produce honey specific to particular flora and shall be branded accordingly. The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) shall provide training to the selected beekeepers along with technical support, follow-up of on-ground activities and product extraction. The certified bee keepers shall be provided financial support through Kamyab Jawan Programme.
The Ministry of Science and Technology shall be responsible for certifying the honey produced under the programme. As an option the certified product, shall be purchased by the National Agriculture Technology Park (NATP), branded and marketed as ‘Billion Tree Honey’. The NATP shall provide an end to end solution for promoting and marketing quality honey nationally and internationally. A pilot testing of the programme shall be initiated at selected sites during the upcoming Spring 2020.