AMN / WEB DESK
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that India has reached first place in the world’s milk production with a 24 percent share and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, milk production in India has increased by about 51 percent in the last 8 years, which is the highest in the world.
This is the fastest increase. The Minister was addressing a function at National Forensic Science University campus in Gandhinagar after virtually laying down the foundation stone for the office building of the National Cooperation Dairy Federation of India (NCDFI) near Anand in Gujarat on Saturday. The Minister urged dairy leaders to adopt the cooperative model that will ensure mutual collaboration among all the cooperative banks, cooperative milk organisations and cattle rearing farmers at village level.
Mr. Shah said that this has been possible only because most of these productions have been done through cooperative dairies. He said that if a cooperative dairy is to be run, then many institutions will have to be formed to nurture it and NCDFI will do this work. In a way, NCDFI is doing the work of providing guidance to all dairies. The Minister said that White Revolution started from the village ‘Vasi’ and now the headquarters of NCDFI is going to be built in the same Anand district in an area of about 7000 square meters. It will be built at an expense of about 32 crore rupees and will be operated through a solar power plant. He said that the new headquarters building will be a 100 percent green building.
Mr. Shah lauded the contribution of cooperative dairies in achieving the vision of a self-reliant India and urged dairy leaders to work to achieve hundred percent digital transactions to promote digital India. The Minister also stressed on natural farming and asked cooperative milk federations to set up village level centres for cow dung collection.
During the programme, the Minister also presented NCDFI e-Market awards to 37 winners from across 25 Indian States and Union Territories. Karnataka Milk Federation Nandini, Mother Dairy in Delhi, and Aavin Dairy in Tamil Nadu, were the top three winners of the NCDFI eMarket Awards on the transacted business on the platform. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, leading cooperative leaders including Shankar Chaudhary, and Dilip Sanghani were also present on the occasion.