National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) chairman, Dr Meenesh Shah has said that NDDB is committed for the development of the dairy sector through the revival of dairy cooperatives in Uttar Pradesh for which it is working with the state government. For this, a roadmap for the revival of Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation, popularly known as Parag Dairy, has also been prepared and discussions are on to bring its idle capacities to better utilisation.
“When we took over the Varanasi Milk Union’s two lakh litre per day capacity dairy plant, just more than a year back, it was operating merely at 6,000 to 7,000 litres, which is now operating at more than one lakh litre per day. This reinforces that by providing better services to milk producers and bringing about professionalism and efficiencies in operations, the dairy cooperatives can be revived in Uttar Pradesh. However, the revival of dairy sector in Uttar Pradesh through cooperative strategies would require joint efforts of dairy cooperatives and milk producer organisations,” Shah said.
He was speaking to the journalists on Tuesday after inaugurating mobile milk vending van operation for the sale of milk at the consumer doorsteps in Agra. Besides, he inaugurated one bulk milk cooler and a biogas plant in nearby villages, where he also distributed maize fodder seeds to dairy farmer members of Saahaj Milk Producer Company to promote quality fodder.
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Stating that major initiatives have been taken by NDDB in Uttar Pradesh to support dairy cooperatives, including milk producer organisations in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Raebareli, Dr. Shah said that plurality of organisations providing services to farmers in the state like Uttar Pradesh actually provides better terms to milk producers.
Acknowledging the need for better availability of feed and fodder for which milk producers spend about 70 per cent of the producer price, Dr Shah said that NDDB has taken major initiatives in this regard which include the promotion of certified fodder seeds under National Livestock Mission as well as the formation of fodder plus FPOs. Several other initiatives are also being undertaken like silage making, securing crop residue, and total mixed ration among other related activities.
On a day-long visit to Saahaj, having a membership of over one lakh dairy farmers of which about 54 per cent are women dairy farmers, Dr Shah said that this milk producer organisation is also targeting setting up of five thousand biogas plants that would be procured from Sistema.bio and farmers would bear only Rs.6,000 to Rs. 7,000 including gas pumps which were earlier available at about Rs.35,000.
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Dr Shah said, “This has been possible with the negotiation with the agency by taking into account carbon credits earned from these biogas projects thus enabling the supply of biogas plants to the farmers at a minimum rate. I am happy to inform that we are now targeting to set up at least 50,000 biogas plants across India to the milk farmer organisations as this will help the environment besides supplementing income of the farmers.”
Appreciating the work done by Saahaj in less than nine years since its inception, Dr Shah said, “This MPC has spread over 10 districts of western Uttar Pradesh to emerge as a leading player as it procures over four lakh litres of milk a day. What is significant is that 87 per cent of the total revenue (about Rs. 850 crores) is given back to member farmers by way of procurement price, bonus, dividends and incentives.”
Saahaj has mentioned that it is slated to increase its membership by 30 per cent to about 1.25 lakh and revenue by 25 per cent to cross Rs 1,000 crore during the current financial year adding that its market share among organised players in these districts is 33 per cent.
