The Government for the first time is in the process of formulating a separate policy for animal husbandry in the State focusing on more income generation for the farmers. The policy besides, looking at milk production would also talk about meat, poultry, feed and other subsidiaries.
“We are for the first time preparing an animal husbandry policy in the State and within two months a report in this regard would be sent to the Government. This is going to cater all needs related to animal rearing and income generation to the farmers out of that. This is much needed as agriculture alone cannot double income of the farmers by 2022,” said Director of Animal Husbandry Vijay Kumar Singh during a State level workshop by NABARD on Thursday.
The policy is primarily to boost milk production in the State which is 1.45 lakh liter a day as well as increasing its processing and storage capacity. later elaborating more on this, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Randhir Singh said that during this financial year milk production is expected to cross two lakh liters.
“We are working on that and crossbreed of indigenous cows with sahiwal etc is being done. Cows have been provided to women in villages. However, we have shortage of milk chilling and processing plants and one at Hotwar and other two in Sahibgunj and Deoghar are functional. Members of our milk federation are producing more and we need plants in Palamu, Chatra, Giridih, Jamtara etc to cater to the needs of the milk route crossing 14 districts,” said the Minister.
Jharkhand Milk Federation managing ‘Medha’ brand is at present procuring 95000 liters of milk through its collection centers in villages which has been targeted to grow up to 8 lakh liters by 2023-24.
NABARD, an important financing agency for the primary sector, has got a go ahead for implementation of four related schemes. “The Centre has approved four new schemes which are Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme, National livestock Mission, Agriclinics & Agribusiness Centres and National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), including soil testing laboratory. We are willing to fund the State and its agencies in these areas,” said Subrata Mandal, Chief General Manager of the bank in Jharkhand.