Subsidies For Cows And Cattle Feed In Offing, Says Minister

INDIA - Steps will be taken to concede the demands of the dairy farmers by exploring possibilities to provide subsidy for buying cows and cattle feed, said Minister for Dairy Development, Mr Mathivanan.

27 October 2009

2 minute read

Asia

He was speaking at a function organised by the Coimbatore District Co-operative Milk Producers Union for providing the margin money i.e., incentive of 50 paise per litre to the dairy farmers and to hand over milking machines reports The Hindu.

Mr. Mathivanan claimed that during the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), government never raised the milk procurement prices and pointed out that the DMK Government in the last three years alone had raised the procurement prices to an extent that it worked out to Rs.5.50 for cow’s milk and Rs.10.20 for buffalo milk.

The Minister lauded the Coimbatore District Co-operative Milk Producers Union for being the best performing union in the entire State and said that the profit during the last year was Rs. 3.81 crore and it would further go up this year.

The DMK government had allocated Rs. 25 crore in the last budget for the Dairy Development Ministry and 25 sheds for cattle maintenance were coming up in Coimbatore district alone.

With regard to the grievance that compensations for the death of cows were getting delayed, Mr.Mathivanan said that efforts were underway to explore the options for providing farmers with a cow by the nearest society in lieu of the dead one.

To a plea for creation of a separate milk producers’ union for the newly-formed Tirupur district made by Highways Minister, Mr Saminathan, Mr. Mathivanan pointed out the legal hitches and assured to overcome the same and form a new Union for Tirupur very soon.

Mr. Saminathan expressed concern at the decreasing number of buffaloes and sought measures to sustain its population for better dairy results.

Rural Industries and Animal Husbandry Minister, Mr Palanisamy said that because of the ban on recruitments many of the Government departments were struggling due to manpower constraints.

Of the 10,000 posts in Animal Husbandry Department, Mr. Palanisamy said that 7,000 were lying vacant. He said that the DMK government was making best efforts to fill up these vacancies.

He said that next to Gujarat and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu was doing well in dairy development and pointed out that increasing the mineral salt content would help in enhancing the dairy production by 20 per cent.