Indo-Israel Agriculture Project (IIAP) will collaborate with Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF) Nauni for commercial bumble bee rearing for the benefit of the farming community through pollination services.

The discussion on collaboration was held during the visit of a delegation of the Embassy of Israel led by Yair Eshel, Agriculture Attaché, Israeli experts Prof Rafael Avraham Stern and Yeshayahu Stern along with the team of Integrated Beekeeping Development Centre (IBDC), Haryana.

The visit was the third by the IIAP delegation with the key objective of increasing collaboration between the university and Israeli experts for commercial bumble bee rearing for the benefit of the farming community through pollination services.

The delegation held discussions with UHF scientists and visited the bumblebee rearing facility being developed at the university.

The delegation also held discussions with UHF vice chancellor Prof Rajeshwar Singh Chandel who stated that Himachal is blessed with a diversity of flora that is preferred by the native bees especially bumblebees that are effective pollinators.

In addition, India has over 48 species of bumblebees and efforts were underway to utilize them for pollination services.

The university has done pioneering work in this field and now it is time that this research takes a leap forward with meaningful collaborations with reputed institutions in this regard so that the quality and quantity of farmer’s produce can be increased.

The technology and knowledge from Israeli counterparts will help overcome constraints like year-round rearing of queens, mating and hibernation technology under controlled conditions, and tackle the incidence of different diseases and pests, he added.

Yair Eshel congratulated the university for their work on honeybees and Bumblebees and spoke about the future collaborations under IIAP and the various work undertaken under the project.

He said that he was looking forward to future collaboration between the University and Israel experts.

It is worth mentioning here that India-Israel has a strategic partnership and has established various platforms called Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence to demonstrate the Israel Agro technology to benefit the Indian farmers under IIAP. Under IIAP, MASHAV has established a Centre of Excellence for Beekeeping- IBDC in Ram Nagar, Haryana for demonstrating honeybee management.