BEIJING: With the use of Chinese technology, Pakistan has witnessed a historic breakthrough in processing honey production and other bee-related products.
Associate Professor at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Dr. Muhammad Asif Aziz, who is Billion Tree Honey Initiative in-charge attended the online training on honey processing technology and beekeeping organized last year by Hunan Agricultural Group Co. Ltd and was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.
The training came at the time when he wanted to learn more about bee breeding techniques, royal jelly production and honey production technology to reach the goal of BTHI, that is to produce 70,000 tons of honey through training in the latest technologies, marketing, introduction of modern beekeeping equipment, standardization and product certification.
He told China Economic Net, “I am lucky to have a fabulous online management team that organized everything so well otherwise it is challenging to have such trainings online.” “Chinese professors demonstrated the beekeeping technology through demonstrations on apiaries and theoretical explanations. And there were interesting introductions to culture of China, so we had deeper understood of China along with learning the Chinese beekeeping technology,” he applauded the training.” He was awarded excellent trainee at the end of the training program.
The training made him realize to develop the apiculture industry in Pakistan. Further, there is a need to skill the local practitioners with techniques in production of higher-value bee products, including royal jelly through capacity-building programs and trainings.
He started to train beekeepers in Pakistan in two categories of short-term course and middle-to-long-term training for green hands. Earlier, mostly beekeepers remained hesitant to produce this product fearing a loose bee population.
Chinese technology
Dr. Muhammad Asif Aziz and his students decided to use Chinese technology after learning about China’s royal jelly technology and invited l bee farmers to practice and learn together. The successful production of royal jelly with plastic queen cells in colonies with queens surprised everyone.
he said, “Chinese people are working for the betterment of humanity through sharing their knowledge, which is remarkable. This will lead to economic and social stability of both countries.”
He said that he was looking to visit to China for a face-to-face meeting with the experts from apiculture industry as online trainings cannot replace offline practices. — APP
