Demand of Ranchities for quality milk and milk products will now be addressed as National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has forayed in Jharkhand to act as a saviour and help promoting the State owned Medha milk from today. Animal Husbandry Minister Mannan Malik inaugurated ‘Mother Dairy Medha’ project at Animal Husbandry and Fishery Department.

State Government had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the officials of NDDB on March 2 for five years. According to the agreement the state milk federation management was to be entrusted to the NDDB. The state owned brand which was marketed under the brand Medha will now be marketed under Mother Dairy Medha brand.

Malik said, “The pact was signed with the objective to decrease the state’s dependency in procurement of milk from other states and to encourage the local farm. At presents the local procurement quantity of Medha milk and milk product is restricted to 15,000 liters only but with the help of national board the production is likely to increase to a great extent.”

As per the understanding, for five years the NDDB team will look after the administrative and other functions of the state milk federation. The Board team will take up the operation in six out of 24 districts of the state. These include Ranchi, Dhanbad, Khunti, Ramgarh, Chatra and Hazaribagh. The project costs comes around Rs 24 crores.

“To meet the requirement a mineral mixer plant and feed plant will be set up in the coming days. Hunt for land for the same has already been commenced by the team. The plan is to take up the operation in nineteen districts by the end of the understanding,” said Animal Husbandry Department Assistant Director Mukul Kumar Singh who will also be the Project Director of the Jharkhand project which is currently managed by this department.

Currently, the state has eight milk processing plants with an installed capacity of around 23,000- 24,000 liters milk per day. The state actual requirement is of five lakhs liter milk per day.“The state hopes to become self sufficient soon with the help of board. The initiative is considered to be proved beneficial for both farmers as well as customers,” added Singh.Meanwhile, the minister on the occasion also handed over the subsidize rate to the farmers under various Government scheme.

Yogesh Kumar Singh of Hazaribagh was given a check of Rs 45,530 as subsidy money for deep boring. Kiran Kumari of lohardaga receives Rs 19,200 check for the same.