Guwahati: The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which markets Amul products, will soon expand its operations to Darrang, Morigaon and Nagaon districts in Assam to support indigenous dairy farmers.

It recently initiated milk procurement from remote villages in the state after the launch of the Amul milk production unit on the outskirts of the city.

The cooperative initially faced problems in milk procurement but met with success soon with dairy farmers from neighbouring areas like Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Nalbari showing interest in forming milk producers' welfare associations (MPWAs).

It has formed 12 such associations so far and has set up two bulk milk coolers at Tihu in Nalbari and at Kokila in Bongaigaon.

The Tihu bulk milk cooler, which started operations on Thursday, collected 1,200 litre milk from four MPWAs on the very first day. Altogether 160 farmers have benefitted from the association and Amul is planning to increase the number to 1,000 producers within three months.

The Kokila milk cooler is slated to start operations by the third week of this month with a targeted daily milk collection of 4,000 litres from eight MPWAs on its first day of operation.

From these two sites, Amul plans to collect 10,000 litre of milk daily in the next three months.

In the next phase, Amul plans to enter the Barpeta Road area to initiate milk procurement.

Amul's total investment in Assam will be about Rs 1.50 crore.

Apart from milk collection, Amul will soon start a productivity enhancement programme for producers, which includes supply of balanced cattle feed and feed supplement, veterinary services and fodder seed, among others.

By the end of 2018-19, Amul is planning to expand operations to Darrang, Morigaon and Nagaon districts to partner with about 25,000 farmers and form 35 MPWAs with a daily collection of 26,000kg milk at an additional investment of Rs 3 crore.