Cooperative department stood firmly with farmers and consumers during covid 19 pandemic

Ludhiana: During the curfew/lockdown due to COVID 19, the Punjab government made sincere efforts to ensure that all kinds of essential commodities and other necessary items are provided to its citizens. For this work, the Punjab Cooperative Department also stood firmly with the farmers as well as the consumers. Different organisations of the department played a phenomenal role for supply of essential commodities to the citizens.
While providing information, Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies Ludhiana, Mr Sangram Singh informed that during lockdown, the supply of milk and products was of foremost importance. Verka Milk Plant Ludhiana supplied milk, cheese, curd, lassi, kheer and other products to the residents, along with 4414 MT of feed, 40 MT mineral mixture and 23 MT Verka Ghee.
A total of 785 cooperative societies come under the Verka Milk Plant Ludhiana, and despite the closure of private dairies, maximum quantity of milk was procured. He informed that the cooperative societies used to procure around 5.35 lakh litres of milk daily, that increased to 5.80 lakh litres per day during lockdown. Along with it, even the milk processing increased from 3.6 lakh litres to 7 lakh litres during lockdown.
For the benefit of dairy farmers, sexed semen facility was also provided for their cattle along with veterinary aid. During this period, artificial insemination of sexed semen was done to 34570 animals.
Similarly, Markfed supplied 27778.93 MT urea and 2567.65 MT DAP to the farmers. Along with urea and DAP, Markfed also supplied other necessary items amongst the farmer members. During this procurement season, Markfed procured 200000 MT wheat against a target of 188000 MT. IFFCO supplied 15727 MT urea, 1675 MT DAP and 54 MT NPK to cooperative societies.
Mr Sangram Singh informed that during lockdown, the cooperative department provided 2200 masks to farmers through the self help groups. He said that even 20 DSR machines have been provided to farmers on subsidy due direct sowing of paddy, using which they are expected to sow around 937 acre of paddy this season.