Ranchi: The new logo of Medha dairy brand of Jharkhand State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation was unveiled on Tuesday here by agriculture minister Randhir Kumar Singh and other VIPs, the minister promising a white revolution in the state by 2024.
The new Medha logo has elements of the palash, the koel and a drop of milk to indicate the Jharkhand touch as well as the freshness of the products. Also, toll-free number 75440 03456 and website www.jmf.coop are printed on pouches/packages to enable consumers make complaints or suggestions.
Fortified and homogenised milk, ghee, paneer, lassi, dahi and misti dahi under Medha brand are currently available in 21 of 24 districts in the state.
At the logo launch, state agriculture minister Singh promised six-fold increase in Medha's production in as many years.
"By 2024, the state milk federation that now procures and processes 1.3 lakh litres of quality milk a day will increase it to 8 lakh litres a day," the minister said before Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Choudhary, Kanke MLA Jitu Charan Ram, agriculture and animal husbandry secretary Puja Singhal and senior Medha officials.
The federation has 300 collection centres to procure milk from farmers that will go up to 1,000, the minister further said, adding the combined milk processing capacity of 1.45 litres per day of its four plants at Hotwar (Ranchi), Deoghar, Latehar and Koderma would also go up and new plants at Sahebganj, Palamau and Sarath (Deoghar) would also be set up by then.
"With the number of milch cows given to women under a state scheme going up to 50,000 in next two years, milk production will also suitably increase," Singh said later on the sidelines of the event.
Medha general manager Narendra Mishra said the logo and packaging of Medha products were redesigned and relaunched on the basis of feedback received through a recent survey involving 5,000 consumers and dairy farmers. "We wanted to make it attractive and vibrant to portray the freshness of product and symbols of the state," he said.
He added that Medha was doing well in a short time. "Beginning with 12,000 litres of milk collected from 2,000 farmers in 2014, the federation, which is a joint initiative of the state government and National Dairy Development Board, is now collecting 1.3 lakh litres from 20,000 farmers," he said. "We paid over Rs 100 crore to these farmers by bank transfer in 2017-18."
Agriculture secretary Singhal on her part said the state was now working on introducing Tetra Pak (cartons) for Medha products too.
