Dairy sector fund launched, NDDB handed over Rs 440-cr cheque

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday formally launched the Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) and handed over a cheque for Rs 440 crore to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

Under this project, milk cooperatives will be provided an assistance of Rs 8,004 crore in the form of loans at 6.5 percent interest rate, which will be reimbursed over 10 years.

The DIDF was announced in this year's Union Budget to support dairy cooperatives for modernization and creation of additional processing infrastructure with an outlay of Rs 10,881 crore.

"Additional milk processing capacity of 126 lakh liter per day, milk drying capacity of 210 tonnes per day, milk chilling capacity of 140 lakh liter per day shall be created," said an official release.

Singh said that the scheme will benefit 95,00,000 farmers in about 50,000 villages, besides providing direct or indirect employment to many skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

So far, 15 sub-projects with a total approved outlay of Rs 1,148.61 crore in Karnataka (Rs 776.39 crore, five sub-projects), Punjab (Rs 318.01 crore, four sub-projects) and Haryana (Rs 54.21 crore, six sub-projects) have been sanctioned, as per the release.

Singh said that Rs 51,077 crore was required to operationalize the National Action Plan (Vision-2024) to help double the incomes of dairy farmers and concretize the opportunities that exist for dairy entrepreneurs.