TİKA Supports Women Working in the Field of Beekeeping in Pakistan

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) developed a capacity-building program for female entrepreneurs in the field of beekeeping in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

The program organized in Gilgit-Baltistan in cooperation with the Honeybee Research Institute of Pakistan in order to improve beekeeping standards in Pakistan and promote female labor force participation has been completed.

As part of the program, specialists from the Honeybee Research Institute provided technical training to 50 female entrepreneurs in two groups in Gilgit and Hunza on the prevention of honeybee diseases and pests; honey quality testing; packing, labeling, and marketing; and queen bee rearing techniques. The female entrepreneurs who participated in the training were given certificates and beekeeping equipment after the training was completed.

The delivery ceremony was attended by local NGOs, press members, specialists from the Agriculture Research Institute, and local people, as well as female entrepreneurs. At the ceremony, Khadim Hussain, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries for Gilgit-Baltistan, and Dr. Attaullah Shah, Chancellor of the Karakoram International University, thanked TİKA for its activities and cooperation in the region.

TİKA had previously supported the training provided to the specialists from the Honeybee Research Institute (HBRI), which conducts studies on honey in Pakistan, in Türkiye in previous years, as well as the establishment of the Advanced Bee Research Laboratory within the Institute in 2020. As part of the same project, 3-day training programs were organized for a total of 100 specialists in Kohat, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Rawalakot, Peshawar, and Gujrat in 2021, and 100 Turkish-Type beehives were donated in the same year.

TİKA will continue to improve its capacity-building programs in the field of beekeeping in Pakistan with projects for sustainable food security, improvement of honey quality, veterinary services for the protection of bee health, and beekeeping technology, in the near future.