The Uttar Pradesh government has launched the Nand Baba Milk Mission at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore to increase milk production on the one hand, and, on the other, to give milk producers a fair price for their produce in villages itself.
Under the mission, milk cooperative societies will be formed in villages to promote precision dairy farming, increase per animal milk productivity and provide a proper market to rural milk producers.
Giving this information here on Sunday, a state government official spokesman claimed that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been working tirelessly to give recognition to the dairy sector of Uttar Pradesh at the global level.
As a result, UP Global Investors’ Summit-23 held this year attracted investment proposals worth Rs 1,000 crore in the dairy sector. Many of these investors will be putting their projects on the ground in the groundbreaking ceremony.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Dairy Development Shashi Bhushan Lal Susheel said, “Uttar Pradesh is the leading milk producing state of the country. The entire country produces 221 million metric ton of milk, while UP alone produces 33 million metric ton. On the other hand, 444 grams of milk is available per person per day in the country, while per person per day availability of milk is 392 grams in UP. The participation of the organised and unorganised sectors in milk collection is 21 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively.”
Lal added, “At present, there is a lack of availability of a market for milk producers in rural areas, but efforts are on to increase the number. Similarly, steps are being taken to increase the number of value-added animal feed/fodder and organised animal feed manufacturing units. Along with this, the focus will be on increasing per animal per day milk productivity, which is less in UP as compared to other states.”
According to the official, steps will also be taken to overcome the shortcomings in terms of lack of required skills in milk processing and precision dairy farming. The availability of processed milk and milk products will be increased at reasonable prices and the participation of the organised sector in milk processing will also be expanded soon, he added.
The milk commissioner and mission director said, “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has named the scheme after Nand Baba because he was the world’s biggest cow breeder, milk collector, butter producer and foster father of Lord Shri Krishna. Nand Baba had nine lakh cows and had donated two lakh cows to the people for their livelihood. Keeping all this in mind, it has been named as ‘Nand Baba Milk Mission’.
The mission’s goal is to reach from cow to the customer. Under this, the value chain involves production-collection-processing-consumer. The mission will focus on increasing milk productivity, enlarging milk collection and processing capacity, capacity development and value protection.