Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh said that Meghalaya Milk Mission will facilitate in achieving the Centre’s goal of doubling farmer’s income by 2022 through promotion of milk business in the state. Announcing a sanctioned project of Rs 215 crores through National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) at the launching programme of Meghalaya Milk Mission in Shillong today, the minister said that the amount will be utilised for various training under dairy farm, chilling centre and purchase of milk animal.
Meghalaya Milk Mission has been conceptualised to plug the demand-supply gap in the per capita milk availability. Stating that the per capita milk availability in Meghalaya is much lower than the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR’s) recommendation of milk consumption per person, the minister said that the Milk Mission will enable the state to substitute the import of milk with the state’s own production.
97 villages out of the 6449 villages of Meghalaya, while there can be cooperative societies in 60 per cent of the total villages. Acknowledging the potential of the state for agriculture and related sectors, the minister said that cooperatives can play an important role in the development of this sector.
Milk Mission will generate alternate livelihoods for the rural people of Meghalaya through diary sector. 2000 farmers will be directly benefitted by this Mission over the next four years, he said. The minister said that the Milk Mission will also check the absence of organised marketing channels in the dairy sector in Meghalaya.
2000 dairy farm units, in one unit there is provision for purchase of 5 cows, shed constructions, storage room construction, animal insurance, 79 bulk milk coolers of 500 litre capacity, 13 milk tankers of 3000 litre capacity etc. There is also a provision of Rs 1 crore for the training of farmers in the project. The launch of the Mission, the minister said, will benefit Meghalaya immensely.