The Telangana CM made a bunch of promises to the dairy farmers of the state to incentivize them to up milk production.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday announced that very soon a comprehensive scheme for the development of the dairy sector would be launched in the state to make it a "ksheera viplavam" (milk revolution) in which milk producers (dairy farmers) from the Vijaya Dairy Development Society, the Mulkanur Dairy Development Society, the Nalgonda and Rangareddy District Dairy Development Societies, and Karimnagar would be given top priority.
The CM was addressing a meeting of the members of the Vijaya, Mulkanur, and Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy District Dairy Development Societies in the Pragati Bhavan lawns. He made his address to the dairy farmers an interactive session, asking them questions and eliciting their responses.
As a prelude to the proposed revolution, the CM accepted the demand of the dairy farmers of the other societies to give them Rs 4 per litre as an incentive as is done in the case of the dairy farmers of Vijaya.
The Chief Minister also announced that the government through the dairy development societies would provide a 50% subsidy to farmers for buying buffalos, and that the subsidy would be 75% if the farmers happened to be from the SC/ST community. In return, the CM asked that every farmer plant six saplings in their house, name each sapling after one of their family members, and take care of the plants by watering them regularly. To this, the gathering of over 8,000 dairy farmers responded positively with a thunderous applause.
The CM promised that the Rs 4 per litre incentive would be implemented from September 24, and that the distribution of the buffaloes would commence after two months.
As was done in the case of the sheep distribution, the beneficiaries themselves will identify and buy the buffaloes, and the subsidy will be routed through the dairy development societies.
Referring to the current milk production in the state, the CM said that all the three dairy development societies put together were producing just about seven lakh liters of milk as of now. Karnataka was supplying six lakh litres, AP four lakh litres, and Gujarat two Lakh litres to Telangana. The milk being produced in Telangana was a very small percentage when compared to the state's demand of one crore litres.
It was because of this, the CM said, that there was a need to have a major program to take milk production and marketing to the level of a milk revolution. He said that he would personally formulate the scheme, and promised that the dairy farmers from the three dairy development societies would be given top priority.