Assam: Plans to produce 10 lakh litre of milk per day in seven years, says Atul Bora

GUWAHATI: Assam is planning to produce 10 lakh litre of milk per day within seven years, Assam Veterinary Minister Atul Bora said here on Thursday.

Presently, the state produces 29 lakh litre of milk per day, while the milk produced by the organized sector is less than 3 lakh litre per day.

On January 7, 2022, the state government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for a joint venture company with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore with the target of processing 10 lakh litres of milk through 6 new milk processing units in 7 years which would benefit more than 1,75,000 farmers.

A joint venture company, North East Dairy And Foods Limited was formed which held the meeting of the first board of directors on February 8, 2023, in Guwahati.

“Under the guidance of NDDB, an expansion project is going on at Purabi Dairy. As part of the expansion project, Purabi Dairy’s processing capacity will be upgraded from the existing 60,000 litres per day to 1.5 lakh litres of milk per day,” Borah said addressing a press conference here on Thursday.

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Apart from Purabi, Sitajakhala and Amul and several other cooperative groups are also producing milk from the state.

Plans are afoot to set up six milk processing plants in the state. The government has identified land in Cachar, Jorhat and Dibrugarh districts. There will be two other plants in the Biswanath district. 

We have revived three small processing plants in Guwahati, Dhemaji and Bongaiagaon. The Tezpur plant can’t be revived because it was damaged before 2016. There are also 10 other defunct plants.

“We are focusing on artificial insemination on cows. Till October 2023-24, artificial insemination has been carried out on 3,74,483 cows across the state. The artificial incrimination was carried out on a total of 6,70826 cows and new cow born is 2,57,732,” he said.

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The minister said dairy is the single largest agricultural commodity contributing 5 per cent of the national economy and employing more than 8 crore farmers. India is ranked the first in milk production contributing 23 per cent of global milk production.

“Milk production in India has increased by 51 per cent over the past 8 years from 146.3 MT during 2014-15 to 221.06 MT during 2021-22. Milk production in the country is growing at the annual growth rate of 6.1 per cent over the past 8 years whereas global milk production is growing at 1.2 per cent per year,” he said. 

To boost the animal husbandry and dairy sector and recognise the contribution of the Northeast in this field, the Central government will celebrate National Milk Day in Guwahati on November 26.