With the vision of transforming the rural landscape of Assam through dairy farming, the Government of Assam and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on January 7 at Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium in Guwahati for the creation of a joint venture for holistic development of the dairy sector in the state.

Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Parshottam Rupala, along with Atul Bora, Minister for Agriculture, AHVD and Cooperation, Govt. of Assam, and Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India graced the occasion. The MoU was signed by Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB and Maninder Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Dept. of Cooperation, Govt. of Assam.

The event was also attended by Arunachal Pradesh Minister for Animal Husbandry, Veterinary and Dairying, Tage Taki, Mizoram Minister for Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Dr. K. Beichhua. Many other senior government dignitaries, officials, concerned agencies and dairy farmers were also present at the event.

The ambitious target of this joint venture will be to create milk processing capacities to handle and add value to over 10 lakh litres of milk every day in the state. This will not only help more than 1.75 lakh farmers to alleviate their farm incomes but will also create huge employment at various levels of the milk value chain. The joint venture will be responsible to set up six dairy processing facilities across Assam, wherein milk from more than 4100 Dairy Cooperative Societies shall be processed, packed and marketed.

Furthermore, as part of this dairy development project, more than 15000 high milk-yielding Gir cows will be inducted into Assam to ensure higher returns to the dairy farmers of Assam. The plan also envisages the setup of infrastructure for Cattle Feed and Silage manufacturing within Assam.

The government of Assam shall be ensuring financial aid and support to the planned interventions of this joint venture through the concerned departments with the support of the Government of India under various schemes of the government. This joint venture will also be guided, mentored & managed by NDDB, wherein NDDB shall also be bringing in tried & tested technological innovations like sex-sorted semen, Ration Balancing Programme, Ethnoveterinary medicine, manure management projects etc. to Assam. The joint venture’s operations shall be self-sustainable, wherein the initial infrastructure shall be financially aided and supported under various schemes of the State and Central Governments for the development of cooperative dairying.

Advertisements | 5E For Success