SHARAN (PAN, Irrigation and Livestock in the southwestern province of Paktika has launched a program to teach local residents the skill of beekeeping.
According to the department’s director, Hamidullah Tokhi, the training program cost $130 thousand (about six million afghanis) and is being funded by the Provincial Reconstruction).
Initially, about 100 people from the province will be trained as beekeepers, and each individual will receive four boxes of bees, he said. If successful, the program would be expanded in the future.
Tokhi said the goals of the project are to create work opportunities for the people of Paktika, to boost the economy, and to provide a valuable product.
A trainer on the project, Enzar Gul, said the environment in Paktia is ideal for beekeeping. It is easy to do, while offering many benefits, he said.
A resident of Sharan city, Abdul Matin Samsor, lived in Pakistan during the Soviet war, where he saw people practicing beekeeping. They were able to solve their financial problems this way, he said, as well as produce pure honey.
Now, one of his friends is a honey producer in neighbouring Paktia province and earns a lot of money that way, he said.
Gul Makhan, a shop owner who sells honey in Sharan, says that people bring honey from Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces to sell in his shop. But the people of Paktika would buy honey from their own province if the programme is successful, he said.
“I earn 2,000 afghanis everyday though selling honey,’ Makhan said.
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