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The National Dairy Plan (NDP) of the Central Government has achieved about 62 per cent of its desired target of funding projects that would increase the productivity of milch animals and milk production in the country, a top official of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) said here.
The first phase NDP-1 (2011-12 to 2016-17) with an overall estimated project outlay of Rs 2,241 crore is progressing as planned, he said.
About Rs 1,256-crore worth of projects have been sanctioned so far covering 16 states, including Telangana and Uttarakhand, which were earlier not included in the plan.
“We are on track, though there was some delay due to general elections earlier this year. About 225 projects worth Rs 1,256 crore have been sanctioned under NDP-1. Over a quarter of this has gone to Gujarat as about Rs 328 crore has been sanctioned for 33 projects,” T Nanda Kumar, Chairman, NDDB, said on the sidelines of the Golden Jubilee Year Celebrations here.
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh kicked off the year-long celebrations on Saturday.
NDP-1 aims to fund projects mainly in four verticals – breed improvement, ration balancing, village-based milk procurement systems and project management learning.
Out of the total financial outlay of Rs 2,241 crore for the Central scheme NDP-1, Rs 1,584 crore is met through credit from International Development Association (IDA), and Government of India’s share is Rs 176 crore.
The End Implementing Agencies (EIAs) that will carry out the projects will bear Rs 282 crore for the scheme. NDDB and its subsidiaries will bear Rs 200 crore for providing technical and implementation support to the projects.
NDDB chief Nanda Kumar further informed that in order to produce good quality milk and bring uniform quality standards for milk producrs at different federations, NDDB plans to rope in the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
“We have convened a meeting of heads of all milk federations with the FSSAI Chairman on 17th of this month. The meeting is aimed at finding a solution for quality issues in milk and set certain quality standards for milk production,” Nanda Kumar said.
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