Details added (first version posted on 11:57)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 28
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Baku has hosted a final seminar of the project “Improving living standards of rural population through increasing productivity in beekeeping” implemented by Azerbaijan’s Agriculture Ministry with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
The project aims to increase productivity of local Caucasian honey bee breeds, as well as to enhance skills of beekeepers in order to increase volumes of honey production from one honeycomb. These steps, in turn, are aimed at increasing the income and living conditions of the Azerbaijani beekeepers.
Gene pool honey bee nurseries were established in the Beekeeping Center under Azerbaijan’s Research Institute of Animal Breeding, as well as in the Gakh district of the country within the project. The bee nurseries, which were provided with the necessary equipment, were established with the support of the FAO.
At the same time, in order to find pure genetic lineage of bees of gray mountain Caucasian breed, samples of insects from various districts of Azerbaijan were collected and sent to Turkey’s Ankara, where biological and genetic analyses were carried out.
“Samples of bees were selected from a total of 56 beekeepers from 28 villages of Azerbaijan for examination,” the project coordinator Asef Omarov said. “For selection purposes, 125 bees were sent to back to Azerbaijan. They were delivered to both nurseries. Presently, these bees are used as pure genetic material.”
The project “Improving living standards of rural population through increasing productivity in beekeeping” implemented together with the FAO was launched in 2015. The total cost of the project was $200,000.