Faced with malaise of milk adulteration, the Uttar Pradesh government has asked private players to invest in the industry so that quality milk could be supplied to the consumers.
The proposal came during the plenary session on Agri, Food processing and Dairy sector in UP - a market with 200 million consumers. Over 664 MoUs have been signed in Agri, Dairy and Horticulture with expected investment of Rs 31300 crore.
Principal Secretary, Dairy Development, Dr Sudhir Bovde said that poor quality of milk is supplied across the state which is no longer a secret. "The government has been taking steps but it has not proved enough. Here private players can come and invest in the sector," he said.
Bovde said that there was scope of investment of Rs 11000 crore in the dairy sector and investors could also go for goat milk. "This has medicinal value full of zinc and selenium an is good for cure of Dengue AES," he said.
R S Sodhi of Amul said that only 4 per cent of the milk collected comes to cities. "This is a huge market and youth should not come to cities in search of job instead they could earn more by working in dairy sector," he said.
Suggestions also come for combining Horticulture and Dairy sectors which could open market for banana milk.
Union minister for Food processing and Dairy development Harsimrat Kaur said that wastage of food was a crime. "We have raw material but people go to bed empty stomach . This needs to end and the only solution is food processing," she opined.
"The previous government announced 48 Food Park in 2008 but by 2014 only two were made possible. Our government is committed to setting up food parks. Our government gives subsidy but no one was willing to set up Mega food parks in previous years," Kaur said.
Ravindra Chaudhary of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park said that its food processing unit in Noida would provide employment to over 25,000 people in western UP besides helping farmers to get remunerative price for their produce.
Joint Secretary, Horticulture, Parag Gupta asked investors to invest in food processing units.