By Our Reporter
Shillong: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Friday announced that the state government has been commissioned by the Niti Aayog and the Ministry of Veterinary, Government of India to establish a cattle feed mill in the state with an initial capacity of 150 tonnes per day. The process of completing the DPR is on, he added.
The Feed Mill, which will be the first one in the North East, will also be the only supplier for all the Northeastern states.
Tynsong was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a one-day Stakeholder Consultation on Capacity Building Programmes under Milk Mission at the State Convention Centre, Shillong.
The deputy chief minister informed that the government will set up the first cattle ranch near Mawmerang, SWKH.
Stating that the aim of the government is to empower individuals through cooperative societies, he urged upon the cooperative department to educate people in the village level on the benefits of cooperative societies. He also urged all officers present to step up commitment so as to ensure that the schemes and programmes of the government achieve their desired objectives.
The programme was jointly organised by the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), New Delhi and Laxmanroa Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research and Development (LINAC).
The major focus of the six pronged training consultation is to focus on training dairy farmers at the grassroots level on dairy animals health, management and basic milk processing in dairy cooperative societies; management, business development and bookkeeping in dairy cooperative societies; healthcare management and nutrition and producing of milch animals.
Corruption in cooperative society
KN Kumar, Chairman, Meghalaya State Farmer’s Commission, on the other hand, lamented over the fact that cooperative societies in the state have not succeeded owing to the corruption that exists in the cooperative society system and said that there is a need to break the cycle of corruption.
Kumar added that in the last 48 years, only 38 dairy cooperatives were created. However, with the launch of the Milk Mission, 68 new cooperative societies have been created in the past year alone.
“While this is an encouraging trend, there is also a need to upgrade the skill formation of the dairy farmers such that they can bring about scientific management of dairying,” he said.
Kumar informed that the Milk Mission was launched last year following a loan taken by the state government from the NCDC to the tune of 2.20 crore with a subsidy component of 53 crore.
“To deliver a mission of this magnitude, besides the government, the role and involvement of cooperatives is of paramount importance,” he stated.
Others who spoke were Dr. Shakil P Ahammed, Principal Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, AH & Veterinary Department and Sundeep Kumar Nayak, MD, NCDC.
