On the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami, the Medha Krishi Utsav was organised by the Jharkhand State Cooperative Milk Federation at Fisheries Training Center, Dhurwa, Ranchi on Monday. In this event, Agriculture Minister Badal Patralekh launched the scheme of providing Re.1 subsidy per litre to milk producers who supply milk to Jharkhand State Cooperative Milk Federation.

Addressing the milk producers in the programme, Badal congratulated all the milk producers of the state. He said that Jharkhand has a bright future in the milk business and this is a golden opportunity for our milk producers, this will provide a source of income to the people of the state in their own state.

The Minister also lauded the working system and progress of the milk federation and assured that the state government will provide all possible help to the federation. Earlier, Sudhir Kumar Singh, Managing Director of Jharkhand Milk Federation welcomed the minister and showed him the work done by the federation so far, the status of three dairy plants being built and future goals.

Jharkhand State Milk Federation which is popularly known as Medha brand is following the lessons of continuous progress in efficient management of National Dairy Development Board since last six years. Presently about 40,000 milk producing families are associated with the Milk Federation from 18 districts of the state which are supplying about 1.30 lakh litres of milk per day.

At present four dairy plants under Milk Federation (Hotwar, Koderma, Latehar and Deoghar) are running with a processing capacity of 1.40 lakh litres while additional three new plants namely Sarath-Deoghar, Sahiganj, Palamu are in the final stages of construction and production will soon begin there. Apart from this, a Cattle Feed Plant, Mineral Mixer Plant, Bypass Feed and Cold Breeding Plant is also being established and operated by the federation in Medha Dairy premises located at Hotwar with the aim of reducing the production cost of milk producers and increasing the quality of milk.

In today's programme, a telemedicine program was started by the Agriculture Minister for proper and accessible advice related to the health of animals. Under this programme, animal owners will be given advice regarding the health of their animals by specialist veterinarians. Appointment letters were also provided to six people of the Animal Husbandry Department whose guardians have passed away during their service.