Assam govt identifies land to set up three mega milk plants

The Assam government on Thursday said it has identified land at three places to set up mega milk processing plants, with each having a capacity of one lakh litres per day.

Addressing a press conference here, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora said a joint venture company of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the state government will set up these plants as part of the Assam Dairy Development Plan.

“The JV will establish a total of six mega plants, with each having a milk processing capacity of one lakh litre a day, at different places in Assam. Of these, land for three have been identified in Cachar, Dibrugarh and Jorhat. The process of identifying more land is underway… We are exploring sites in Biswanath as well,” Bora said.

“Simultaneously, we have already revived small defunct processing plants with a capacity of 5,000 litres per day in Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Dhemaji,” he said.

A total of 13 plants were defunct and 10 were not in a position for revival as those were very old, he said.

“The JV has been working since last year. In 2023-24 till now, artificial insemination has been conducted on 3,74,438 cows, which is 43.37 per cent of our target this fiscal,” he added.

Bora said the Centre will celebrate National Milk Day on November 26 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien in Guwahati in association with the Assam government.

In January last year, the Assam government and NDDB signed an agreement to create a Rs 2,000-crore joint venture for holistic development of the dairy sector in the state.

As per the MoU, a joint venture company of NDDB and the Assam government would be set up with a target to process 10 lakh litres of milk through six new units in seven years.

Milk from more than 4,100 dairy cooperative societies would be processed, packed and marketed. This will benefit more than 1,75,000 dairy farmers of Assam and increase their earnings.

Two cattle-feed and organic manure manufacturing units will also be set up as per the agreement, while import of high-yielding cattle breeds and artificial insemination will also be taken up.

Furthermore, as part of this dairy development project, more than 15,000 high milk-yielding Gir cows would be inducted into Assam to ensure higher returns to the dairy farmers of Assam.

Under the MoU, the Assam government would be ensuring financial aid and support to the planned interventions of this JV through the departments concerned with the support of the Union government under various schemes.

This joint venture would be guided, mentored and managed by NDDB, wherein NDDB would also be bringing in tried-and-tested technological innovations like sex-sorted semen, Ration Balancing Programme, Ethno veterinary medicine and manure management projects to Assam.

The JV’s operations shall be self-sustainable, wherein the initial infrastructure would be financially aided and supported under various schemes of the state and central governments for the development of cooperative dairying.

Source : The Print Nov 23rd 2023..This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. PTI TR TR ACD