Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam Tuesday discussed the prospects of increasing milk production in the state with Managing Director Amul, RS Sodhi and representatives of the JKMPCL.
Principal Secretary, Animal and Sheep Husbandry Department,AsgarSamoon, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Khan and other seniorofficers were present during the meeting.
Chief Secretary observed that the Gujarat Co-operative MilkMarketing Federation Limited (GCMMF), which markets the popular Amul brand ofmilk and dairy products, has established itself as a unique and sustainablemodel for development of rural economy across the country. He said J&Kwhich has favourable conditions for dairy development can take cue from theAmul experience and look for bringing about a transformational change in milkproduction which at present stands at 75 Lakh Litres Per Day (LPD).
“We are looking for rapid and massive expansion in milkproduction in the next 2-3 years for which Amul with its unique experience canprovide the much-needed guidance to the J&K Government in formulating aMilk Production Expansion Plan,” said the Chief Secretary.
Managing Director Amul, RS Sodhi spoke about the associationof Amul with Jammu and Kashmir and the success story of Jammu and Kashmir MilkProducers Cooperative Limited (JKMPCL), which was established in 2004. He said JKMPCL presently operates at acapacity of 50,000 litres of milk per day with 415 Self Help Groups (SHGs),25,000 farmers and 40 milk routes. He said Amul looks forward to working withthe State Government in transforming lives of people through expansion of dairysector and fulfilling the demand of milk and milk products from localproduction.After detailed deliberations, it was decidedthat Amul will prepare a Business Plan for raising capacity of JKMPCL from50,000 LPD to 5 lakh LPD of milkproduction, increase SHGs involved from 415 to 1500, increase farmers involvedfrom 25000 to 1 lakh and increase milk routes from 40 to 400 in the next 3years. The plan will also include steps to be taken by JKMPCL and steps to betaken by State Government to achieve this.