From an annual turnover of a mere Rs 22 crore in 2014-15, the turnover of Jharkhand Milk Federation (JMF) increased to Rs 158 crore in 2018-19, since National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) took over the management of JMF.
Talking to the media on Tuesday, Abhijit Bhattachartjee, group head (PR and communications), NDDB, informed that responding to the request from Government of Jharkhand NDDB took over the management of Jharkhand Milk Federation in 2014.
“A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between NDDB and Government of Jharkhand on March 1, 2014 to manage the federation for a period of five years. Since then NDDB has provided milk producers of Jharkhand with a transparent and quality based milk procurement system to get a greater access to organised milk processing sector,” he said.
Bhattacharjee informed that in the last five years innovative measures introduced by NDDB guaranteed that the money from urban areas of Jharkhand gets transferred to the rural areas thereby bringing about a significant improvement in rural economy through dairying.
Over the years, JMF established 80 bulk milk coolers and four dairy plants at Ranchi, Latehar, Deoghar and Koderma. Under NDDB’s guidance, JMF achieved an average daily milk procurement of about 135 thousand kg per day from 565 milk pooling points, covering over 20,000 milk pourers.
Modern cattle feed plant has been set up in Ranchi with a cost of Rs 7.15 crore, which can manufacture 50 MT of compound cattle feed pellets in a month.
Dairy Board’s efforts have contributed to improve the quality of life of Jharkhand’s rural milk producers. “Due to the innovative milk procurement practices introduced, producers are now earning more. Efforts have been made to promote financial inclusion of the members of cooperatives,” Bhattacharjee said.
He added, “Milk producers were encouraged to open bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana. Many producer members have already opened bank accounts either under the scheme or otherwise. Presently, 100% milk producers receive payment directly in their bank accounts.”
Apart from milk procurement, processing and marketing, NDDB has been offering other services like productivity enhancement of dairy animals through different input activities like vaccination, cattle feed, mineral mixture and more.