UP mulling policy to make dairy cow farming lucrative

Govt said benefits of cow milk need publicity to achieve target of making cow rearing lucrative

In line with 'cow protection' theme of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government is mulling an exclusive policy to promote economic activities centred on cow milk.

The state government is taking a 360 degree approach towards making cow rearing lucrative for dairy owners through targeted policy intervention and relevant publicity.

In Lucknow, UP Dairy Development Minister Lakshmi Narain Chaudhary said production of cow milk would not increase merely by promoting cow milk and its fat. A new procurement policy for cow milk was the need of hour, so that it could be exclusively packed for consumption, he added.

The chief minister has stressed on numerous occasions that cow protection was among his top priorities and his government was committed to promote dairy and animal husbandry sectors. The state is also keen on taking the Centre’s assistance in setting up cowsheds and dairies.

Besides, during a performance review meeting last month, CM Yogi had also ordered to set up an animal hospital in Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituency he still represents in Lok Sabha.

The Yogi dispensation is aiming at boosting farm income and has identified animal husbandry as a key component of its ambitious goal.

Meanwhile, Chaudhary said the benefits of cow milk need ample publicity to achieve the target of making cow rearing profitable in long run. Some of the benefits noted by him viz. cow butter milk's benefits during summer months, and usage of cow milk and cow ghee in several Ayurvedic medicines and potions.

The state government has been running the Kamdhenu Dairy Yojana for increasing the dairy production and preserving the high yielding cattle varieties. At the same time, advanced dairies are also being set up based on modern technology for rearing high yielding mulching cattle.

The main objective of the dairy units established under Kamdhenu scheme is to develop them as centres of excellence for high yielding varieties of cattle.

At the same time, the government is also making efforts to develop independent milk cooperatives in the state and revive the defunct units.

Earlier, industry body ASSOCHAM had urged the Yogi government to formulate a strategy for unlocking the growth potential of the dairy sector through productivity enhancement, strengthening and expanding village level infrastructure for milk procurement, and providing producers with greater access to markets.

With 26 million tonnes (MT) of production, in 2015-16, UP was the top producer of milk contributing 17 per cent of the country's total output of over 155 MT, according to the analysis of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) statistics conducted by ASSOCHAM Economic Research Bureau.

However, despite the highest share in the milk production, UP clocked a low annual growth of 4.7 per cent between 2014-15 and 2015-16. While the number of registered manufacturing units for dairy products in India increased by 26 per cent between 2010-11 and 2013-14, the number of such units in UP declined by 5 per cent during the same period.