The Jharkhand Agriculture Department is offering 1/litre as an incentive to milk farmers who supply Medha Dairy, which is administered by the Jharkhand Milk Federation (JMF). Officials claimed that two and a half crore rupees have already been given under the scheme to encourage growth in the animal husbandry sector and enhance milk supply to current and future dairy plants in the state.
Medha Dairy has three operational units in the state, which produce 130,000 litres of milk per day. Three more milk processing units are scheduled to open by the end of the year, resulting in increased milk demand.
Shashi Prakash Jha, Jharkhand's director of animal husbandry and dairy development, said, “Around 40,000 milk producers currently registered with the federation will benefit from the scheme. Currently, the federation pays up to ₹34 per litre to the suppliers, depending on their milk quality. The government will now provide Re 1 per litre as incentive. The fund is to be transferred to the federation, which will further transfer it to the beneficiaries”.
Jha stated that the system has been retroactively implemented since April of this year, and that incentives will be handed to beneficiaries soon. The initiative was announced in the state budget and was symbolically launched on Monday by agricultural minister Badal Patralekh, who handed out checks to a few registered milk farmers.
Jha further said, “Payment against milk is done within a week. We have already transferred ₹2.5 crore to the federation for payment under the scheme for April, May and June. Payment for subsequent months would also be done soon.
Initially, ₹4 crore was provided for it in the budget. But we expect the procurement to increase soon, so we will have to increase the budget”.
The officer went on to say that there was no chance of pilferage because the incentives would be paid to the bank accounts of milk producers who had registered with the federation.
