Dairy sector development vital for farmers' prosperity: Singh

Development of the dairy sector is vital for the prosperity of the country's farmers, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said Monday.

Singh was here to inaugurate a workshop organised by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on the role of technology in doubling the income of dairy farmers.

Praising the NDDB for promoting technology-driven income-generating activities for dairy farmers, Singh said that involving them in diverse alternatives (dairy based, agriculture or allied activities) was important for building their economic resilience and welfare.

"Dairying is a very important developmental intervention in rural India for achieving agricultural growth with equity," he said.

He reiterated the Union government's commitment to doubling farmers' incomes by 2022.

Singh informed the gathering that under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, projects worth Rs 1,600 crore have been approved by the Centre till March 2018.

Out of this, Singh said, Rs 686 crore has been released.

He informed that 10 sex-sorted semen production centres have been proposed while a centre each in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra have been approved.

The Union minister said that 20 "gokul grams" were also being established.

As many as nine crore milch animals are being identified using UID for which funds have been released, he further said.

Singh said 1,831 bulls have been produced as against the target of 2,200 for improving the breed of milch cattle, especially indigenous breeds.

Addressing the gathering, NDDB chairman Dilip Rath highlighted its new technology-based initiatives focused on providing additional income to dairy farmers, like a genotyping chip named INDUSCHIP used for genomic selection of indigenous cattle breeds.

Improvement of indigenous breeds is also possible through In-vitro Embryo Production technique, he said.

To make manure management a source of additional income, NDDB is promoting use of flexi-biogas plants by the dairy farmers, the NDDB official said.

Another initiative of NDDB is the creation of Solar Pump Irrigators Cooperative Enterprise (SPICE), through which solar pump owners will be able to sell surplus power they generate, Rath said.