More than Rs 1,750 crore has been sanctioned by the government under the National Dairy Plan (NDP) to enhance productivity of milch animals, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.
Singh said in Lok Sabha under the NDP, 530 sub-projects have been approved in 18 states for implementation by 169 state and district level cooperatives, producer companies and livestock development boards with a total grant of Rs 1,754.14 crore till May 2018.
This comprises 62 sub-projects for animal breeding, 167 sub-projects for animal nutrition and 231 sub-projects for Village Based Milk Procurement Systems (VBMPS), he said during Question Hour.
The minister said significant achievements under the plan include 378.98 million high quality semen doses produced, 29.94 lakh milch animals in 32,578 villages have been covered under the nutrition balancing programme, 2,593 bulk milk coolers and 21,711 automated milk collection unit installed and 13.24 lakh additional farmers have been enrolled in 39,956 villages under the VBMPS.
Earlier in May, the Maharashtra Cabinet gave its nod for Rs 3 per litre subsidy for milk powder manufacturers to boost milk powder production taking in to account falling price of milk. The decision would benefit private as well as cooperative milk producers in the state.
Mahadev Jankar, minister for dairy development informed media that the decision would be implemented in the next 30 days and the state would have to bear a burden of Rs 33 crore towards this subsidy. Jankar however made it clear that this subsidy would be given to cooperatives and private milk companies which generate 20 per cent more milk powder than there regular production. At the end of March 31, 2018 a total of 26 thousand 506 metric tonnes of milk powder was left in stock in the state and the cooperatives produced 10,000 mt of milk powder per month.
Milk cooperatives said that due to the drop in milk rates in the national and international market, they are making losses and are not a position to give dairy farmers desired rate for the milk. Ajit Navle, a farmer leader welcomed the decision and said that this is not enough to provide relief. An official with Pune Zilha Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh, Katraj informed that they are making a loss of Rs 3.24 per liter if they convert it into milk powder, and to bridge the gap the subsidy was announced.
