The tail-end Chittoor district is all set for a boom in milk production targeting 40 lakh litres per day by 2021, a giant leap in cattle population and milk farmers in the dairy sector with a growth rate of 27.5 per cent.
The district, widely known as Andhra’s Anand, ranks No.1 in the milk production in the entire State. For the last one decade, there has been a substantial growth in the number of dairy farmers, cattle and production levels.
The district has 3 lakh dairy farmers with 10.25 lakh cattle, majority of them are crossbreed variety.
The multi-faceted strategy of fertility mission (Suphalam) -- preventive health care system, save calf programme, fodder development, breed improvement and marketing techniques -- is under way to achieve the 2021 mission.
District Collector Siddarth Jain has sought the Animal Husbandry and Line departments to chalk out an action plan for the strategic mission for implementation in a phased manner, giving top priority to overcome drinking water problem for cattle and fodder crisis during the summer months. Interestingly, the daily milk production in April this year is up by 2.5 lakh litres compared to last year.
Speaking to The Hindu , Deputy Director (Animal Husbandry) M. Srinivasa Rao has said that the concept of creating zones for dairy development in the district pays off well.
The zones are Kuppam, Palamaner, Madanapalle, Punganur, Piler, Chandragiri, Puthalapattu and GD Nellore, while there are four milk grids at Tamballapalle, Srikalahasti, Satyavedu and Nagari.
These divisions mooted by District Collector himself led to intensified supervision of dairying technologies from lab to land, interaction with farmers and guiding them in going in for animal insurance and adoption of new methods of achieving high milk yields
. “We hope to cross 30 lakh litres by this year-end, ” says Dr. Rao.
The official has said that there will be no scope for fodder or drinking water crisis for cattle this summer. A stock of 1.75 lakh tonnes of dry fodder is being maintained, and distribution of 400 tonnes of fodder seed in all mandals was completed in March itself. As a precautionary measure, 3,500 water ponds, created last year, are kept ready.
For record, milk production suffered a jolt in 2015 with prolonged summer and acute fodder shortage.
Published - April 30, 2016 12:00 am IST
