The National Livestock Research Centre (NLRC), Bumthang under the Department of Livestock is conducting two days of “Training Workshop on Flow Hive Technology for Enhanced Honey Production” for beekeeping entrepreneurs and livestock extension staff from Thimphu, Wangdue, Gasa, Haa and Trongsa Dzongkhags. The training was conducted with the purpose of sensitizing and demonstrating on the recently introduced flow hive technology in Bhutan and encouraging its adoption in these Dzongkhags.
Flow hive technology was first launched in 2015 in Australia and is rapidly gaining popularity in many countries among hobby beekeepers and economically well-to-do classes of people. With the fund support from JSB-UNDP project, NLRC in Bumthang took the initiative to introduce this technology in the country starting from April 2023 onwards and targets to procure and distribute 250 flow hives during this FY 2023-24. It is a novel technology to enhance clean honey production because of its faster, more efficient, and less intrusive innovation and by-passes smoking, removal of frames, and honey extraction. The technology significantly minimizes bee mortality during the extraction process, beekeeping drudgery, and resources despite the initial high cost of hives.
The training is being conducted from 28th to 29th September 2023 in the NLRC conference hall in Bumthang. It is being attended by 22 beekeeping entrepreneurs (10 female and 12 male) and 14 livestock extension staff of five Dzongkhags excluding the resource persons. The opening of the training was graced by the Chief of PPD, MoAL, UNDP representative and JSB-UNDP project coordinator from Thimphu.
The training and the project for flow hive technology are funded by the Japanese Supplementary Budget-UNDP Project-IV titled “Support to collectively respond to the climate emergency and establish resilient development pathways for sustaining human security and green transformation” amounting to USD 1,47,007.
