Centre focuses on raising milk output to boost farmer income

With an aim to double the income of farmers, the Centre is working on a plan to raise the milk production in the country to 242 million tonnes from the present 155 million tonnes in the next few years, a top official has said.

"As per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wish to double the income of farmers by 2022, we have set a target to raise the milk production from present 155 million tonnes to 242 million tonnes per annum," Animal Husbandry Department Secretary Devendra Choudhry told reporters here last evening.

To a question, he said at present the average farmer monthly income is nearly Rs 11,000. "We have set a target to take this figure to over Rs 23,000 per month (by 2022)."

A Rs 2,242-crore National Dairy Project, supported by the World Bank, is being implemented in 19 States, Choudhry said.

As part of the project, a sum of Rs 669 crore will be spent on improving the breed of dairy cattle, Rs 376 crore on developing quality fodder for them and Rs 825 crore on setting up chilling plants, he added.

For raising marginal farmers' income, the government is focusing more on milk production than agriculture given the vast potential the former offers, Choudhry added.