50 per cent to be women
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is planning to enrol about 6,000 additional milk producers to increase milk production in Odisha, said NDDB chairman T Nanda Kumar here on Wednesday.
Speaking at a Press conference, Kumar said out of the 6,000 additional milk producers, at least 50 per cent would be women and 50 per cent of the new village societies would be women societies. Presently, 38 per cent women are involved in dairy farming in the State.
As animal nutrition is not a balanced one in the country, the NDDB would engage local resource persons to cover 600 villages providing ration balancing advisory services to 44,000 milch animals. Besides, construction of 25 sillage demonstration units and one biomass gas bunker would be undertaken and two movers would be purchased for demonstration to strengthen dairy farming in Odisha, he said.
The NDDB has approved seven sub projects of three implementing agencies in the State with a total outlay of `15.10 crore out of which `3.31 crore would be contributed by the end implementing agencies. Under NDP -1, emphasis would be laid on Ration Balancing Programme ( RBP), Fodder Demonstration and Village Based Milk Procurement System ( VBMFS). By end of the project period, the sub projects are expected to contribute towards overall targets of NDP-1, the chairman said.
Ranked 14th in the country, Odisha’s milk production stood at 1.86 million tonnes in 2013-14 which is 1.4 per cent of the national milk production. The cooperative dairies together procured 3.9 lakh liter per day in 2013-14 which is 1.1 per cent of the country’s cooperative milk procurement. Presently, 20 per cent of the inhabited villages are covered by cooperatives as against national average of 23 per cent, said NDDB Managing Director Dilip Rath.
In 2011-12 the per capita availability of milk in Odisha was 112 grams per day about one third of the availability at all India level of 290 grams per day. In terms of milk production, the State has registered a growth of about 6.3 per cent during the decade ending 2012-13 , higher than the national growth of 4.6 per cent, said Rath. Among others, NDDB Executive Director Sangram Chaudhary was present.