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Inspired by the success of Gujarat’s Amul which started the dairy movement in the country, Bihar has drawn up a five-year roadmap to become a major milk-producing state.
Aiming to procure 44 lakh litre of milk daily, the dairy roadmap forms part of a comprehensive agriculture policy drawn up by the state for 2012-17.
“Bihar is working hard to successfully follow the Amul model of dairy,” Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha told PTI.
He said Bihar now holds the ninth position in the list of milk-producing states, Tamil Nadu being at the top.
Verghese Kurien, the man behind Amul, laid the foundation of the Cooperative of Milk Production Federation (COMFED) in Bihar, which he visited twice.
The Managing Director of COMFED, Harjot Kaur Bamhara, said that by the end of 2017, the state would be able to increase milk procurement to 44 lakh litre per day.
The daily off-take of milk at present is 14.96 lakh litre. Bihar figures ninth in milk production in the country.
According to National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) data, milk production in Bihar which was 48.55 lakh litre in 2005-6 rose to 65.17 lakh litre in 2010-11.
“The objective is to link 8.4 lakh families to dairy milk in Bihar by 2017,” Bamhara said.
Bamhara said that a Rs 704-crore loan had been approved by the NDDB for 16 projects out of which 9 have already got the green signal.
COMFED General Manager A K Kulkarni said that a total of 13,000 milk cooperatives are active in Bihar at present. The aim is to increase this to 25,000 by the end of 2017.
According to Kulkarni, COMFED turnover in 2012-13 was Rs 1,500 crore and is going up further.
Per capita consumption of milk in Bihar was 184 gram in 2010-11 against a national average of 281 gram.
Kulkarni said that in addition to enhancing its milk procurement potential, COMFED, which sells its product under the brand ‘Sudha’ after success in Bihar and Jharkhand has now entered Delhi and NCR.
The Sudha brand experiment has been fetching good results, he said.
Kulkarni said COMFED is planning to expand to markets of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
COMFED aims to increase marketing of milk to 21 lakh litre daily by 2017, Kulkarni said. At present it is 8.25 lakh litre.
The State Government has made arrangements for veterinary centres in villages and vaccination of cattle at subsidised rate to help increase milk production.
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