automatic milk collection units to 1500 Haryana village level societies

Haryanawirenews
CHANDIGARH, Jan 9
Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation has a plan to provide automatic milk collection units to 1500 village level societies in next three years and has also decided to give bulk milk coolers to those societies of milk producers who are catering to a cluster of 10 to 15 villages.
Managing Director of the Federation Dhanpat Singh said that at present 610 societies were having automatic milk collection units where milk weight and fat were being instantly measured in a transparent manner. Also, milk was being checked for any adulteration with the milk testing kits certified by National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.
He said that milk procurement in Haryana had touched an all time high of over 9.45 lakh litres per day on December 29, 2008 as against previous high of 8.61 lakh litres per day on December 26, 2007.
Mr Dhanpat Singh said that an insurance scheme had been introduced for the benefit of the members of the village level dairy cooperatives. Under this scheme, aimed at benefitting 40,000 milk farmers, a committed member who had supplied milk continuously for last three years both in lean and flush season has been insured for Rs one lakh for accidental death by merely paying Rs 10 per annum. The balance premium was paid by the Federation and milk unions.
He said that a total of 363 Vita milk booths or milk bars were functioning in different towns and cities of Haryana. As many as nine Vita milk booths were functioning in Chandigarh. He said that there were also 260 distributors who were selling Vita milk and milk products.
He said that the number of milk farmers has increased from 1.04 lakh in 2004-05 to more than 1.38 lakh by December end in the financial year 2008-09. He said that the turn over of the Federation had increased from Rs 355 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 550 crore upto December 2008 and its profit too shot up from Rs 84 lakh to Rs 5.23 crore during the same period.
He said that now the average price being paid to the milk farmers was Rs 17.55 per litre as against Rs 11.76 per litre in 2004-05, Rs 12.67 in 2005-06, Rs 14.50 in 2006-07 and Rs 16.44 in 2007-08.