The A.P. Amul Dairy project has officially commenced its operations in 100 villages of Madanapalle and Ramasamudram mandals of Chittoor district on Wednesday, after a two-week-long trial.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy formally launched the project’s milk procurement process at Rythu Bharosa Kendram (RBK) at Vempalle, a village near Madanapalle, through video conference from his camp office at Tadepalle.
Addressing a gathering of women dairy farmers, field staff of A.P. Amul Dairy, officials of the A.P. Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Limited(APDDCFL) and department of Animal husbandry, the Chief Minister said the tie-up with the Amul Dairy would go a long way in removing the middleman system in the dairy sector, besides rewarding the farmers with the remunerative prices.
Boost to women empowerment
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said as part of dairy development, as many as 7,000 units of milch cows were provided to the beneficiaries. He said another one lakh units would be supplied in February next year, followed by three lakh more units in August. “Milk cooling centres would be set up in 9,899 villages all over the State,” he said, adding that the project would boost women empowerment in a big way.
APDDCFL manager (Madanapalle) S. Naveen said the trial run of milk procurement last month commenced with 150 litres on the initial day, while it was over 2,000 litres on the day of official launch. “At present, the project will cover 100 villages in Madanapalle and Ramasamudram mandals through 32 RBKs. Compared to the private dairies, the Amul Dairy project has come out with a competitive price to the farmers. As Chittoor district is currently having the capacity of 24 lakh litres procurement per day, we are hopeful of bagging a major share,” he said.
District Collector Narayana Barath Gupta, Sub-Collector Jahnavi, Joint Director (Animal husbandry) S. Venkatrao and senior officials were present.