Asserting that dairy farming was one of the best alternatives for farmers to earn profit, Minister for Animal Husbandry T.B. Jayachandra has claimed that no farmer, who is into dairy farming, has committed suicide.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone for various development projects and releasing Nandini Kolhar curd at the office of the Karnataka Milk Federation here on Saturday, he said that since dairy farming gives regular source of earning to farmers, thus they do not face financial losses like agriculture farmers.
“Of over 80 lakh farmers’ families in the State, 13 lakh are into dairy. None of these 13 lakh families have commit suicide,” he said.
Claiming that the Congress government had initiated several projects to promote animal husbandry, Mr. Jayachandra said that Rs. 16 crore had been earmarked to develop the dairy sector in north Karnataka.
He said that despite enormous potential, north Karnataka was severely lagging behind in the dairy sector compared to central and south Karnataka.
“To bridge this gap, our Ministry has decided to allocate more funds to bring north Karnataka on par with rest of the State in dairy sector. We have set a target to constitute 750 cooperative associations in a year in this region by offering Rs.2.10 lakh financial aid to each society,” he said.
The Minister said that projects had been launched to protect and popularise the native breed of cows which had inherent immunity against diseases.
He said that extensive vaccination programmes had prevented the spread of foot-and-mouth disease among over 90 per cent bovines in the State.
To the demand of the Bijapur-Bagalkot Milk Producers Union to grant Rs. 100 crore for modernising KMF units, Mr. Jayachandra promised to get the required funds granted if the project reports were sent to him.
Earlier, president of the Federation, P. Nagaraj underlined the need to focus on retail market for earning more profit like other private companies and multinational companies.
“If the KMF wishes to compete with private companies, then it has to venture in retail market that confining only to whole selling,” he said.
District in-charge Minister M.B. Patil, G.S. Nyamgouda, MLC, president of Bijapur-Bagalkot Milk Producers Union Srishailgouda Patil also spoke.
