Govt committed to increase domestic dairy market to Rs 30L cr: Amit Shah

Gangtok, Oct 7 (IANS) Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the government is committed to increase the domestic dairy market of Rs 13 lakh crore to Rs 30 lakh crore by 2027, adding India has a huge opportunity to supply milk to countries like Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Speaking at the Eastern and North-Eastern Cooperative Dairy Conclave 2022, the Union Minister said that to explore this market, the government is setting up a multi state cooperative which would act as an export house.

He said that the government has made many animal husbandry schemes in the last 7 years and the budget of Rs 2,000 crore has been increased to Rs 6,000 crore.

Shah said that the Ministry of Cooperation and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) have planned in the next 5 years a Multipurpose PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Society) in every Panchayat that along with distribution of dairy, FPO, Agriculture and Gas Production would make arrangements for LPG distribution, petrol pump and storage and marketing.

He said that the biggest benefit of this is going to be for the eastern and northeastern region of the country because the least PACS is registered here.

If one multipurpose PACS having dairy is opened in every panchayat in the northeast, then no one can stop the prosperity of east and northeast India, he pointed out.

Dairy industry is the only way for women empowerment, eradication of poverty and doubling of farmer's income, along with making dairy, a system of nutrition is made for thousands of crores of children.

The Union Minister urged all the NGOs working in the field of women empowerment to focus on dairy industry because dairy industry is the best example of women empowerment. The gas produced with dairy helps the environment, cow dung helps in natural farming and natural farming improves human health.

Shah said that for many years, a huge demand in the country was the demand for eradication of poverty, empowerment of farmers, fishermen, handicraft artisans and lakhs and crores of tribals through the cooperative sector.

He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, airports, rail links, new national highway networks, irrigation systems and new industries have been set up in every state of the northeast.

Saying that Modi calls the "Northeast as Ashtalakshmi", the Union Cooperation Minister said: "We have to move forward in such a way that these eight states (of northeast region) become the states that generated 8 types of capital."

Shah later unveiled the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at Raj Bhavan in Gangtok.