As many as 15,000 high milk-yielding Gir cows - native to Saurashtra in the West - will go all the way to Assam in the East to boost incomes for the local dairy farmers. This comes as a fallout of a joint project being undertaken by the National Dairy Development Board and the Assam Government.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the dairy development project was signed by Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB and Maninder Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Cooperation, Government of Assam in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying in Guwahati on Friday.

The project looks to augment milk processing capacities in Assam while creating better earning opportunities for dairy farmers.

Union Minister Rupala stated that "more than 15000 high milk-yielding Gir cows will be inducted into Assam to ensure higher returns to the state’s dairy farmers. The plan also envisages setting up infrastructure for Cattle Feed and Silage manufacturing within Assam." Earlier in November, under the Gorukhuti Land Development Project, the Assam Government had planned to source 5000 Gir cows from Gujarat to improve livelihood for the local dairy farmers.

Rupala also stressed the need for cattle breed improvement through technology and indicated that these measures would lead to higher returns for dairy farmers to achieve the goal of "Doubling Farmers’ Income".

Assam Chief Minister Sarma informed that the partnership with NDDB aims to add milk processing capacities to handle and add value to over 10 lakh litres of milk every day. "Also, it will set up six dairy processing facilities across Assam, wherein milk from more than 4100 Dairy Cooperative Societies shall be processed, packed and marketed. The move will benefit 1.75 lakh farmers and create employment opportunity in the milk value chain," he said.

This joint venture will be guided, mentored & managed by NDDB, introducing technological innovations like sex-sorted semen, Ration Balancing Programme, Ethno veterinary medicine and manure management projects. Maninder Singh of Assam's Cooperation department informed that the joint venture’s operations should be self-sustainable. The initial infrastructure shall be financially aided and supported under various schemes of the State and Central Governments to develop cooperative dairying.

Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, added that Assam can become the growth hub for fodder cultivation, which can eventually meet the fodder requirement of fodder deficit states.

The Union Minister and Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone for the Purabi Dairy expansion project at Panjabari in Guwahati, undertaken through World Bank-funded Assam Agribusiness & Rural Transportation Project (APART). This will upgrade Purabi Dairy's existing capacity of 60,000 litres per day (LPD) to 1.5 Lakh LPD. Purabi Dairy will add new products such as indigenous sweets, ice cream, flavoured milk etc to its portfolio.

NDDB has been managing West Assam Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Ltd. since 2008. The union has registered daily sales of around 73,000 litres of packed liquid milk and milk equivalent products under the registered brand name ‘Purabi’.

comment COMMENT NOW