India’s Big Push to Milk Production: Cabinet Approves this much for Dairy farming

In a major push to India’s dairy industry, the cabinet today has approved the allocation of Rs 4,460 crore for dairy farming. Cabinet has approved Rs 4,458 crore scheme to boost the dairy sector and the same will benefit 95 lakh farmers of the country, Prakash Javadekar, I&B minister, told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. Under this, 28,000 bulk milk coolers and capacity for chilling 140 lakh litre additional milk per day will also be added. Among other announcements for dairy farmers, the minister said that the government has decided to increase the interest subvention from earlier 2% to 2.5%. Interest Subvention is a subsidy provided to farmers on the interest rates on loans through the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme.

The government has been focusing on the dairy sector and recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government will double the country’s milk processing capacity by 2025. Presenting the Union Budget 2020, she also announced a special rail and flight project for easy transportation of perishable farmer goods such as milk.

Read: Livestock Production Statistics of India – 2019

Source: The article is extracted from The Financial Express, February 19, 2020.