Principal Secretary Animal/Sheep Husbandry & Fisheries Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary today asked the officers of the J&K Milk Producers Cooperative Limited (JKMPCL) to establish their collection centres throughout the UT.The Principal Secretary was speaking during a meeting held to take stock of the implementation of ‘National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD)’.The meeting was attended by Directors of Animal and Sheep Husbandry departments from both the divisions, CEO JKMPCL besides other officers of the department. Jammu based officers attended the meeting through video conferencing.The Principal Secretary urged the Milk Cooperative to distribute their equipments to Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) on ‘first come first serve basis’ without any discrimination to far flung areas. He asked them to share with their concerned directors the list of all the functional DCSs so that their verification could be carried out.Navin advised the officers to look into venturing into value enhancement of milk by making chocolates and cheese out of it. He made out that the geography and climate here is favorable for the same. He also impressed upon them to take benefit from the market linked scheme ‘PARVAZ' to export the items on subsidized freight offered by the government.Navin further enjoined upon the officers to include officers from the Animal and Sheep Husbandry for proper distribution and monitoring of the selection of beneficiaries. He asked them to coordinate with the departments to make the process effective and inclusive. He asked them to make the process of milk collection from households more transparent and honest. He advised them to give priority to the marginal farmers while collecting the milk from producers.
The meeting was informed that around 821 DCS have been established under the NPDD consisting of 40000 producer members. It was further said that 183 TPLD (Thousand Liters per Day) capacity of milk chilling plants and 150 TPLD dairy plants have been established in J&K under this programme.It was further revealed in the meeting that under NPDD a diary development project for Kashmir was approved with an outlay of Rs 646.68 lakhs and for Jammu at Rs 513 lakhs. These projects envisaged installation of Automatic Milk Collection Systems (AMCS), procuring of milk tankers, installation of new machinery and milk analyzers (milkoscan) in these plants.Similarly another project for J&K was sanctioned in the year 2018-19. Under this project funds to the tune of Rs 2761. 93 lakhs were received with an expenditure of Rs 2150.64 lakhs. This project assisted in upgradation of JKMPCL milk plants at Cheshmashahi, Srinagar and Satwari , Jammu, the meeting was informed.It was also given out that the new project sanctioned in the year 2020 has an outlay of Rs 109.63 crore out of which Rs 8.97 crores has been received by JKMPCL. The project components include expansion of Cheshmashahi milk plant from 50 TLPD to 100 TLPD. It also includes creation of 50 TLPD UHT pouch milk facility at Satwari. It would also finance expansion of Dahi and buttermilk plants at both the installations.This new project would additionally help Installation of 36 BMCS, 1560 AMCS and purchase of 18 insulated vehicles and 12 milk procurement vehicles by the JKMPCL. All the non-movable assets are said to be raised in the unmapped areas so that there is uniform facilities available in all areas of J&K.Pertinent to mention here that all of the projects are implemented with the central share of 90% and organizational share of 10% only. These projects are implemented by JKMSCL to maximize the benefits of milk producing farmers besides training them to enhance their capacity for value addition and gainful employment generation.