To give boost to its ambitious agriculture diversification programme, the Punjab Government on Tuesday announced a slew of incentives including bringing power tariff rates applicable in dairy, fishery, goatry and piggery at par with agriculture sector and advancing soft loans to the beneficiaries of goatry and piggery at interest rates equivalent to dairy sector, among others.
Besides, the Government has also announced to stabilise milk purchase rate and making it uniform across the state along with introducing single window for the promotion of allied farm sector. The announcements were made by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over a series of meetings with the progressive dairy farmers, piggery, goatry and fishery beneficiaries.
He said that the Punjab State Power Corporation limited would henceforth charge farm tariff from dairy farms as against the commercial rate being charged at present. “The eligible beneficiaries of allied farming sector would get power bills on the reduced tariff from existing Rs7.75 per unit to Rs4.57 per unit from the coming cycle,” he said.
Acceding to a major demand of the dairy farmers, the Chief Minister announced that the state milk cooperative — Milkfed, — would pay uniform procurement price of milk to the milk producers throughout the year across the State. Badal said that the loss incurred, if any by Milkfed, in the implementation of the decision would be taken care of by the Government.
likewise, Badal said that the State Government would provide 50 per cent subsidy on all the components of two to six local or domestic cow breeds dairy units for the promotion of indigenous breeds. Chief Minister also told the farmers he has been actively pursuing with the Centre the matter of lowering the fat content in the standards fixed for cow milk for Punjab from 4.0 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
“The Centre has already given in principle approval to rectify the infirmity in the existing guidelines of milk fat and formal orders to this effect would be issued shortly,” he said. Badal also asked to constitute a small group to look into the issues concerning increasing term of loan for dairy shed and other machinery to 15 years and implement SNF formula being used by Nestle.
He also announced that soft loans up to Rs1 lakh would be advanced to the beneficiaries of goatry and piggery, through Cooperative Banks, at interest rates equivalent to dairy sector.
Badal also asked the Financial Commissioner to introduce a single window facility to be manned by senior officers of the Animal husbandry department, on the pattern of Industrial Promotion Bureau, for all issues related to dairy, poultry, piggery and goatry. He also announced the exemption of VAT on the Pig feed as in the case of Cattle feed. Four nuclear breed farms to be set up for breed enhancement of beetle goat, besides water testing laboratories on all 14 Government fish seed farms.