Business Standard

Cabinet approves plan to develop dairy sector; 250,000 jobs to be

generated

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved a Rs 10,881 crore fund, for the
period 2017-18 to 2028-29, to develop the country's dairy sector,
benefitting 95 lakh farmers and generating nearly 2.5 lakh jobs.

The Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) will

focus on building an efficient milk procurement system by setting up of
chilling infrastructure and installation of electronic milk adulteration
testing equipment and creation, modernization, expansion of processing
infrastructure and manufacturing faculties for value added products for
the milk unions and producers, said a cabinet communique.

"Out of Rs 10,881 crore of financial outlay for project components of

DIDF, Rs 8,004 crore shall be loan from NABARD to National Dairy
Development Board (NDDB) and National Dairy Development
Cooperation (NCDC), Rs 2,001 crore shall be end borrowers
contribution," it said.

In addition, Rs 12 crore would be contributed by the NDDB and the

NCDC while Rs 864 crore would come from the Dairy Department
towards interest subvention.

Benefiting 95 lakh farmers in about 50,000 villages, the project is set to

generate 40,000 direct and two lakh indirect employment opportunities
for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower, the statement said.

"Direct employment opportunities for about 40,000 people will be created

under the scheme through project activities like expansion &
modernisation of existing milk processing facilities, setting up of new
processing plants, establishment of manufacturing facilities for value
added products and setting up of Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) at village
level," it added.

The benefits also include creating additional daily milk processing

capacity of 126 lakh litres, daily milk drying capacity of 210 tonnes, daily
chilling capacity of 140 lakh litres, setting up of of 28,000 BMCs along
with electronic milk adulteration testing equipment and daily value added
products manufacturing capacity of 59.78 lakh litre of milk equivalent.