Ranchi, March 4: There may soon be some utterly butterly good news for Jharkhand.
Jharkhand Dairy Project, which ended a five-year tie-up with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on a sour note last December, is looking at help from Amul to boost milk production in the state.
Amul (Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd) MD Rahul Srivastava and managing director of Gujarat Co-operatives Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) R.S. Sodhi met state animal husbandry and fisheries principal secretary B.K. Tripathy and director (dairy development) Alok Kumar Pandey during a visit yesterday.
“We held initial level of talks with GCMMF and Amul officials. It was positive and now we are supposed to visit Gujarat to study the three-tier co-operative system model. There is all probability that Jharkhand Dairy Project would get a help from expert hands,” Pandey said.
Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand and group president (corporate affairs) of Reliance Industries Limited Parimal Nathwani performed a crucial role in bringing Sodhi and Srivastava.
Nathwani told The Telegraph the agenda was to explore how Jharkhand could find a place in the league of country’s top states through increased production of milk and other products.
Both Srivastava and Sodhi also visited existing facilities of the state project and offered tips on improved functioning.
Jharkhand Dairy Project’s experiment with NDDB was not productive, as total milk procurement from only three districts hovered around 11,000-12,000 litres per day against the targeted coverage of 12 districts and procurement of over 50,000 litres.
Jharkhand Dairy Project’s Medha brand is yet to find a significant presence in the market due to supply woes as well as robust marketing from Bihar’s Sudha brand milk and allied products.
It is a well-known fact that Amul and GCMMF steered the milk revolution in Gujarat. Authorities now hope that a new MoU will be signed between the Gujarat entities and the state animal husbandry department to benefit farmers and cattle-rearing communities in Jharkhand. GCMMF markets Amul products. A three-tier co-operative system at the village, union and federation levels is followed in Gujarat.
