First lady of Arunachal Pradesh Neelam Misra has called for the promotion of apiculture in the state as it would generate employment for the youths.
“With a large and evergreen forest cover, Arunachal Pradesh has a huge potential to become the honey-producing hub of the region,” Misra, while interacting with the lady officers of the textiles and handicrafts department at Raj Bhawan in Itanagar on Monday.
The first lady highlighted that the low cost and maintenance-free venture of beekeeping, which the housewives can do easily would help generate income, thereby making them self-reliant.
She asked the officers to encourage and motivate local youths to opt for apiculture by availing the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) from the Khadi and Village Industries (KVI).
She also recommended imparting training to the interested youths on innovative ideas to make the traditional handloom and handicrafts items more marketable through the SFURTI.
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“We should promote sericulture, particularly ‘ahimsa silk’, where the insect life neither suffers nor dies for making the silk,” Misra said.
Unlike other silk harvestings which require the silkworms to be killed in their cocoon stage, ahimsa silk is harvested by a method that allows the completion of the metamorphosis of the silkworm to its moth stage.
“The local ‘Eri’ silk production of Arunachal Pradesh follows this method,” she said.
