Frosty weather kills 70 percent honeybees in Takhar

TALOQAN (Pajhwok): The ongoing cold wave has killed 70 percent of honey bees in northeastern Takhar province, an official said on Saturday.

The lack of professional skills and proper places to keep bees are other reasons behind such losses, the official adds.

MaulaviRahimullahAhadi, the provincial Agriculture and Livestock Department head, said the recent winter cold wave not only killed dozens of people but also unprecedentedly killed honey bee colonies.

He said beekeepers in Takhar lacked professional skills and they placed hives at improper places and all this contributed to the high bee losses.

Ahadi assured that the Department of Agriculture would help and address beekeepers problems if they coordinated with his department.

While some beekeepers stressed the government should compensate their losses and resolve their problems.

Mohammad Zahir, a beekeeper in Dash-i-Qala district, said: “I had 280 crates of bee colony hives, due to the recent cold wave,  bees in170 crates died”.

He claimed neither the previous government nor the present government had assisted them about marketing their products, medics and food items for their bees.

He said: “We requested several times the agriculture department and other institutions to provide us proper places, food and other things, but our calls fell on deaf ears and we lost our wealth.”

Sher Ahmad Sanqar, another beekeeper, said the bees died en masse due to lack of experience about where to keep bees in such cold conditions.

Sanqar lost 40 bees colonies out of 70 colonies. He said if the government and other institutions did not help them protect the surviving bees, they would not be able produce honey this year.

He said women besides men were also involved the business of bee keeping and they also suffered losses. He asked the government to help such victims of natural disasters.

Honey produced in Takhar recently won first position during an exhibition in Kabul.

aw/ma

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