Himachal Pradesh government’s efforts to strengthen the rural economy by hiking milk procurement price is yielding positive results with a consistent rise in milk procurement. The HP State Co-operative Milk Producers Federation Ltd is now on an average procuring two lakh litres per day.
The monthly payouts to the milk producers have increased from Rs. 8.70 crore to Rs. 25.62 crore, providing direct financial benefits to milk producers. “The present state government has taken numerous steps to bolster the milk based economy. We are procuring cow milk at Rs. 45 per litre and buffalo milk at Rs. 55 per litre.
Since 90 per cent of the state’s population resides in rural areas, our aim is to ensure money reaches the hands of the villagers, enabling their economic development. The government will continue to make significant decisions in this direction in the future as well,” said Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu here on Thursday.
To bring transparency in milk procurement, 455 automated milk collection centres have been established across the state through Milkfed, he said.”The Milkfed is collecting milk directly from the farmers’ door steps even in the remotest part of the state, ensuring financial benefits to improve their social and economic conditions. Additionally, Milkfed is also providing farmers with 5 litre capacity cans,” said he.
The Federation is also implementing dairy development programmes in 11 districts of the state forming 1,148 village dairy cooperative societies and registering 47,905 members under this umbrella, he said, adding that these initiatives aim to enhance the livelihood standards of the rural community and strengthening the State’s dairy economy.
Sukhu said that the state government has also initiated a Him Ganga Yojna from the current financial year with an initial outlay of Rs. 500 crore. He said that the state government has set up a new milk processing plant with a daily capacity of 50,000 litres at Duttnagar in Shimla district with a cost of Rs. 25 crore. Additionally, the Government is also establishing a new processing plant with a capacity of 1.50 lakh litres per day at Dhagwar in Kangra district, he added.
He said that these initiatives will go a long way in providing remunerative prices to the farmers for their milk production. In order to strengthen rural economy, apart from increasing MSP on milk, the government has undertaken numerous initiatives, including encouraging the farmers to adopt natural farming techniques and shun the chemical farming, said Sukhu.