With the objective of exploiting the potential of North Karnataka region in the field of dairy farming and boosting the milk production, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) has come up with some new projects in the region.
Addressing press persons here on Monday, KMF President P. Nagaraju said that for strengthening the cooperative milk movement, the KMF would be setting up a ‘mega dairy’ in Dharwad district and a dairy unit has also been planned in Ramadurg of Belagavi district.
Mr. Nagaraju said that the mega dairy would help in production of all the milk products in the region and would require an estimated investment of Rs. 100 crore. He said that Bengaluru already had such a plant and all types of milk products produced there were being sent to other districts. A mega dairy would also help in ensuring that the customers got fresh milk products, he said.
He said that with the objective of introducing ice cream products to the domestic market, KMF had planned a 10,000 litre ice cream unit which would be set up under Ballari Milk Federation. Further setting up of ice cream units would depend on the demand, he said.
Referring to the construction of hostel for KMF employees in Bengaluru, Mr. Nagaraju said that soon a 250-capacity hostel would be constructed in North Karnataka for the benefit of the employees’ wards.
Considering the increasing demand for buffalo milk in Bengaluru and South Karnataka, KMF has planned to increase the procurement of buffalo milk from the KMF units in North Karnataka region from the present 1.4 lakh litre to a minimum of 12 lakh litres. He pointed out that Bengaluru alone required 10,000 litre curd made from buffalo milk and KMF had initiated steps to meet the demand.
Maize for fodder
Considering the fact that maize has become a major crop in NK region, KMF had decided to implement programme for using maize for fodder production and talks were already underway with the Chief Minister for getting approval for purchasing maize directly from farmers for fodder production, he said.
To a query, he said for encouraging setting up cooperative milk societies the Federation would give Rs. 2.5 lakh as grant and it has plans to facilitate setting up of 50 to 100 cooperative milk societies in every taluk of North Karnataka.
Mr. Nagaraju said that the Federation had sanctioned a Calf Nurturing Centre to Shahapur in Yadgir district under which calves purchased from cattle market were nurtured and sold back to the farmers at subsidised rates. He said that Rs. 4 crore had been earmarked for the project and the plan was to have similar centres in every district in the future.
