Assam Govt & NDDB Signs MoU for Holistic Dairy Development in State

MoU signed by Chairman, NDDB & Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of Assam in presence of Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Hon’ble CM of Assam,  Parshottam Rupala, Hon’ble Union Minister &  Atul Bora, Hon’ble Assam Minister

With the vision of transforming the rural landscape of Assam through dairy farming, Government of Assam and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for creation of a joint venture for the dairy sector’s holistic development at Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium in Guwahati. The foundation stone of Purabi Dairy expansion project was also laid.

Event Highlights:

The MoU was signed by  Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB and  Maninder Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Dept. of Cooperation, Govt. of Assam in presence of Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam,  Parshottam Rupala, Hon’ble Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying,  Atul Bora, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture, AHVD and Cooperation, Govt. of Assam, Dr K Beichhua, Hon’ble Minister for Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Mizoram and  Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India. The event was also attended by many senior government officials, concerned agencies and dairy farmers.

In his address, Dr Sarma said that the target of this joint venture will be to create milk processing capacities to handle and add value to over 10 lakh litres of milk every day. This will not only help more than 1.75 lakh farmers to alleviate their incomes but will also create huge employment at various levels of the milk value chain. The joint venture will setup six dairy processing facilities across Assam, wherein milk from more than 4100 Dairy Cooperative Societies shall be processed, packed and marketed.

Rupala mentioned that the new initiative will lead to higher returns for the local dairy farmers, which is a step towards the aim of “Doubling Farmers’ Income” envisioned by Hon’ble Prime Minister. He further said, as part of this dairy development project, more than 15000 high milk-yielding Gir cows will be inducted into Assam to ensure higher returns to the state’s dairy farmers. The plan also envisages settingup infrastructure for Cattle Feed and Silage manufacturing within Assam. He stressed on the need for breed improvement of cattle through technology.

During the post-lunch session, Rupala chaired an interactive session with ministers and representatives of various North-eastern states, government officials, entrepreneurs and farmers.

The session was aimed at creating awareness and apprising about the benefits of the revised and realigned schemes of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India. It highlighted various avenues for providing better livelihood to the farmers and help empower the rural economy & growth of the north east region.