A Rs 215-crore project through the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has been announced for Meghalaya Milk Mission for various training under dairy farm, chilling centre and purchase of cattle.
While making this announcement at the launch of the Milk Mission in Shillong on Saturday, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh said it would facilitate in achieving the Centre’s goal of doubling farmer’s income by 2022 through promotion of milk business in the State.
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The project consists of 2,000 dairy farm units each with a provision for five cows, sheds, storage room, animal insurance, 79 bulk milk coolers of 500 litre capacity and 13 milk tankers of 3,000 litre capacity.
There is also provision for Rs one crore for training farmers.
The mission aims at plugging the demand-supply gap in the per capita milk availability, which is much lower than the Indian Council of Medical Research’s recommendation of consumption per person.
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The Minister said there are cooperatives in only 97 villages out of the 6,449 villages of Meghalaya while there can be cooperative societies in 60 per cent of the total villages.
Production is only five per cent of the demand.
The minister further stressed that the Centre is strengthening the cooperatives of the State, working in different sectors, through NCDC, which will open new dimensions of employment in the State.
He further said that around 2,000 farmers will be directly benefited by this mission over the next four years.