A laboratory of the State Agrarian University of Moldova was outfitted with modern apicultural equipment with the support of USAID. The equipment to the value of 140,000 lei includes primary instruments, vertical beehives, a frame stainless steel honey extractor, apicultural sets, blades, IT and other equipment that will facilitate learning, IPN reports.
In the event to inaugurate the teaching apiary and the laboratory, the University’s rector Liviu Volconovici said the modern equipment offers the students the possibility of becoming highly-qualified specialists. This way their training will meet the private sector needs.
Ion Maxim, president of the National Association of Beekeepers of Moldova, said the modern equipment allows carrying out broad and useful research in the field. “The students will look after the bees and beehives themselves and could populate them and conduct scientific research. This way beekeeping in Moldova will profit from innovations and advantages,” he stated, being quoted in a press release of the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development.
The laboratory was equipped with microscopes for determining the purity of the race obtained by interbreeding bees. According to Ion Maxim, different races obtained in laboratory are now imported unofficially, such as the hybrid Buckfast, which is very productive, but cannot be reproduced naturally. National beekeepers are trying to breed it, but the obtained descendants destroy the purity of the autochthonous race and this can even disappear.
The State Agrarian University of Moldova is the only higher agricultural education establishment in the country. It teaches over 4,000 students.
