The Punjab government today decided to do away with the practice of Change of Land Use (CLU) certificate required for setting up honey processing units in the state.A decision to this effect was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today in a meeting with the delegation of Progressive Beekeeper’s Association led by its President Mr. Simranjeet Singh here at Chief Minister’s Residence this evening. The Chief Minister directed the Financial Commissioner, Excise & Taxation to immediately issue a notification in this regard to promote bee-keeping as allied farming profession to further supplement the income of the farmers.The Chief Minister also assured the association that he would soon take up the issue of seeking exemption from Income Tax (IT) for the farmers engaged in allied farming activities like bee-keeping and mushroom cultivation with the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley on the pattern of IT exemption already applicable in agriculture.
Mr. Badal said to exempt these farmers from IT would give a further fillip to adopt allied activities of farming like apiary and mushroom cultivation to promote the concept of diversification of agriculture, which was the need of the hour. He said that it was all the more important and relevant since the margins of profit from traditional farming had already been squeezed due to ever widening gap between the high cost of inputs and low returns in terms of Minimum Support Price (MSP).Mr. Badal also asked the Director, Horticulture Dr. Gurkanwal Singh to immediately create one post of Joint Director (bee-keeping) and put a separate proposal to strengthen the manpower for mushroom, protected cultivation and other specialized lines in horticulture.
The Chief Minister also gave a nod to undertake marketing of honey produced by the bee-keepers through its premier state marketing cooperative agency- Markfed, which had its own well knit marketing network across the country.
He said the honey keepers, who were producing quality honey conforming all the requisite parameters required for exporting it to USA, Middle East and Europe could also tie up with the Markfed to enhance their profitability. He asked the Managing Director Markfed Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh to ensure the best remunerative price to the local bee-keepers for honey procured from them.Meanwhile, MD Markfed apprised the Chief Minister that the Markfed had already set up a state-of-the-art honey processing unit-cum-hi-tech quality testing laboratory in Jalandhar at a cost of Rs.40 crore, which would provide the latest facilities to the honey producers from the state for processing and quality testing especially required for marketing their produce both in domestic and international market.
The Chief Minister also directed his Principal Secretary and Financial Commissioner Cooperation Mr. S.K. Sandhu to tie up with Vice Chancellor, Punjab Agriculture University Dr. B.S. Dhillon to strengthen the bee-keeping department by deputing the best faculty over there to impart the latest technology and know-how to the bee-keepers to enable them to enhance the quality production of honey. Likewise, Mr. Badal also decided to engage the services of experts in all the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) being run by PAU to impart training to the bee-keepers.