Meghalaya Launched the National Milk Mission to Promote Dairy Production

• 09 Aug 2018

The North Eastern state of Meghalaya has launched the National Milk Mission to promote dairy production and become self sufficient in terms of milk production by 2022.

• According to the livestock census of 2012, Meghalaya has about a million cattle with considerable milch cows (cross-bred), which contributes to almost 60 percent of the dairy production in the state.
• Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,while launching the Meghalaya Milk Mission (2018-22) pressed its concern regarding the lesser number of milk cooperatives in the state as compared to other states in the country.

Key Facts

• The National Co-operative Development Corporation has sanctioned a Rs 215-crore project under the milk mission to train people in dairy farms, to set up chilling centres and to purchase milch animals, among others.
• The state government through the mission is planning to develop community ranches at the village level by inducting indigenous cattle breeds like Sahiwal, Gir, Rathi and Red Sindhi.
• The State government opines that the promotion of community ranches will help in solving the land related problems being faced by the small and marginal farmers of the state.
• The State government through the mission also envisages to increase district level milk cooperative unions to eleven from the current three in Jaintia Hills, West Garo Hills and East Khasi Hills.
• It will help in achieving Centre’s goal of doubling farmer’s income by 2022 through promotion of milk business in the state.

Meghalaya Milk Mission

• It aims to plug the demand and supply gap in the availability of per capita milk in the state.
• To generate alternate livelihood opportunities for the rural people through the dairy sector and to create and revive dairy co-operatives.
• There is also a provision of Rs 1 crore for the training of farmers under the project.
• The Mission is expected to benefit 2,000 farmers in the next four years.

Advantages of Ranching

• It makes use of marginal or range areas that cannot support any meaningful crop farming.
• It leads to the production of healthier animals.
• It creates employment opportunities.
• It leads to the protection of animals from predators.
• It adds value to the farm products.

National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC)

• The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) was established by an Act of Parliament in 1963 as a statutory Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
• NCDC is engaged in the promotion and development of Cooperatives in agriculture and rural oriented activities
• The Act has been amended recently to to enable it to fund cooperatives in the services sector, rural industries, livestock etc.
• NCDC assistance is not individual beneficiary oriented but is meant for institutional development of Cooperatives.