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India has sought a loan from the Japanese International Co-operation Agency to fund a dairy development project with an outlay of ₹20,057 crore.
The funds will be used to set up 1.05 lakh bulk milk coolers to store 524 lakh kg of milk per day in an additional 1.28 lakh villages. The funding will also be deployed to create milk and milk product processing infrastructure of 76.5 lakh kg per day, an official release from the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. The move, it said, would benefit 122 lakh additional milk producers.
Part of the funds will also be used to upgrade and expand old milk and milk product processing plants set up in the past as part of Operation Flood, the release said.
The proposal for the funding, which will be routed through the National Dairy Development Board, was forwarded to JICA by the Department of Economic Affairs.
A JICA mission, which visited India in February, evinced interest in extending support to the dairy sector, which has grown nine-fold to 155 mt over the last 65 years.
According to the release, even though 54 per cent of the milk produced is surplus, the organised dairy sector, comprising both cooperative societies and private firms, has the capacity to process only 20.5 per cent.
The demand for milk in the country is projected to grow to 210 mt by 2021-22.
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