Director Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare, Jammu, K. K. Sharma convened a meeting with Prominent Dairy Farmers of Jammu Division here at Krishi Bhawan to discuss the formation of Farmers Producers Organization (FPO) in Dairy sector under “One District One Product” (ODOP) Project.
The area expansion under fodder cultivation was also discussed threadbare in the meeting.The meeting was attended by Joint Director Agriculture (Inputs), A. S. Reen, Joint Director (Extension), Subash Chander Sharma, Joint Director (Marketing), Mahesh Verma, besides a number of prominent dairy farmers led by Kulbhushan Khajuria.
While discussing the road map regarding implementation of Fodder Development Scheme, the Director Agriculture Jammu stressed on the need of area expansion under green fodder production for silage making to feed the milk cattle for quality milk production.
He said that every dairy farm must have its own silage unit.Director informed that the main focus of the fodder Development programme is Production of high quality milk by making possible the availability of green fodder for the cattle round the year in the form of silage.
Director advised the dairy farmers to get organized through formation of FPO after registration under Co-operative Act for efficient marketing of quality milk and other processed products at the doorstep of the customer, besides creation of infrastructure.
In this regard, it was decided that a meeting will be held tomorrow between dairy farmers and National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) officials coordinated by the Department of Agriculture to discuss the modalities involved.
Issues like providing fodder seeds to the farmers on subsidized rates, establishing Farm Machinery Bank (FMB) for mechanized cultivation of fodder crops to reduce the labour cost and marketing of milk was also discussed in detail during the meeting. The issue of establishing fodder mandies and fodder banks was also discussed. Dairy farmers also shared their viewpoint regarding improvement of the dairy sector.