Ongole: Amul to start milk collection from November 25

Ongole: The Amul Dairy, which entered into an agreement with the AP Dairy Development Corporation, will start collection of milk from 259 Rythu Bharosa Kendras in Prakasam district from November 25, announced the APDDC managing director (MD) Ahmed Babu. He participated in a meeting with the departments concerned at the district collectorate on Thursday to discuss the issues related to dairy development in the district.

A Babu announced that the government was starting the milk collection centres in association with the Amul for the first time in the state in Prakasam district. He said that the teams from Amul have conducted a detailed survey in 331 villages in the district and submitted a report to the government that the farmers were losing about Rs 5 to Rs 10 per litre as of now. He said that they would start the milk collection in 25 mandals on a pilot basis from November 20 and the government will officially launch the collection from November 25 from 259 Rythu Bharosa Kendras.

The APDDC MD announced that they were going to increase the collection centres to 820 centres gradually and include women farmers in cooperative milk producers councils to procure more quality milk. He said that they introduce a self-management system to provide transparent services to all farmers and make payments in just 10 days. He announced that about 44,000 women, beneficiaries of the YSR Cheyutha scheme, have come forward to set up dairy units in the district. He said that they install milk quality checking machines at every RBK and keep 10 tonne fodder ready at all times.

Collector Dr Pola Bhaskara said that there were 7.73 lakh buffaloes and 86,100 cows in the district, which produce 16.14 lakh litre daily. About 4 lakh litre is being consumed locally while 7 lakh litre is sold by farmers and another 4 lakh litre is used for various purposes. He said that there were 90 dairies working in the district and Ongole Dairy was procuring milk through cooperative societies.

The Santhanuthalapadu MLA T J R Sudhakar Babu, joint collector J Venkata Murali, district revenue officer K Vinayakam, ZP CEO T Kailash Giriswar, agriculture in-charge joint director Srinivasa Rao, animal husbandry joint director Ravindranath Tagore, district panchayat officer Narayana Reddy and others also participated in the meeting.