Shillong, Oct 20: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday said Meghalaya’s organic honey has been termed the best in the world and announced that the government is contemplating a Bee Museum and Interpretation Centre to sell organic honey and showcase digital interpretation of honey production.
He was speaking after inaugurating an Apiculture Multi Facility Centre cum Processing Unit at Mellim in Rerapara Block, South West Garo Hills in presence of MLAs Mehtab Chandee A. Sangma, Sanjay Sangma and Subir Marak.
“The Apiculture Centre will strengthen beekeeping by supporting scientific production, technical training, value addition and market access,” he said, stressing focus beyond box distribution to colony management, quality control, processing, packaging, branding and market access.
He informed that Apiculture Mission 2.0 is being implemented in three phases across 12 districts, covering 87 clusters and 6,491 beekeepers. 32,455 bee boxes and 6,491 equipment sets have been provided — five boxes and one equipment set per beekeeper. 39 clusters covered under Phase III produced 157.69 MT honey during 2024-25.
The state has also established the Integrated Bee Development Centre at Sambrak, North Garo Hills. The Mellim centre, built at about Rs 1.52 crore, will handle collection, processing, bottling, testing, marketing and bee-box manufacturing.
On the same day, the Chief Minister also inaugurated the new building of Rerapara C&RD Block, felicitated the Aking Nokma of Rerapara for donating land, laid the foundation for AMPT Road (Garobadha to Tura) and inaugurated the suspension bridge at Samandalgre, Rerapara.
“The Block Development Office is the most important office for public service delivery. Secretariat may be the highest, but work-wise BDO is most important. If BDO and staff work efficiently, 75 per cent of public concerns will be resolved,” he said.
He said nearly 70 per cent of block offices were earlier functioning from small rented premises, and the government sanctioned close to Rs 200 crore to upgrade all blocks — “No government has done this before.
“He said the AMPT Road is vital for Garo Hills connectivity, while the Samandalgre bridge is part of over 100 suspension bridges being built to connect remote habitations.
