India - Kurien revives two milk plants abandoned by NDDB in J&K

The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has scored a win over its close ally National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) by reviving the two sick milk plants in Jammu & Kashmir. The two milk plants — one each at Srinagar and Jammu — were leased to two milk federations, created by the government on NDDB’s recommendation way back in 1982-83 as part of Operation Flood-II. The project, aimed at increasing milk production in the then milk scarce state, included setting up of a new dairy plant of 60,000 litres per day (LPD) capacity at Chashmashahi (Srinagar) and 60,000 LPD dairy plant at Satwari (Jammu), in addition to 500 village co-operative societies for the procuremnet of milk in the state. According to sources, even after recruiting staff and sanctioning funds, the project was abandoned halfway by NDDB. One of the main reasons for that was terrorism. Industry observers, however, accuse NDDB of not taking any initiative to increase milk production in the state. “NDDB should have attempted to increase milk production,” says an industry analyst. Ironically, milk production has increased to a far extent than what it was in the early 60s even without NDDB’s support. Kashmir division alone produces more than 6.2 lac metric tonnes (LMT) of milk annually, while Jammu produces about 6.8 LMT. Per person per day milk availability has gone up from just 56 gms (1956) to 326 gms at the end of 2003-04. That, however, could not help the two federations created by NDDB — Kashmir Valley Milk Producers’ Co-operative Federation and Jammu Co-operatie Milk Producers’ Federation. In the absence of any marketing support, federations started incurring huge losses. According to sources, federations have accumulated liabilities which includes outstanding dues to milk producers and salary to its staff. While the proposed 60,000 LPD dairy plant never saw the light of the day, the events saw closure of the state’s two 10,000 LPD dairy plants — one each at Chashmashahi and Jammu — which were being successfully run by the department of animal and husbandry prior to NDDB’s entry. Last year, the project got a new lease of life when J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to call GCMMF to revive the co-operative mechanism for marketing milk in the state. The project was finally kicked off last week when GCMMF led by its chairman Dr V Kurien and managing director BM Vyas commissioned the two milk processing units at Cheshmashahi in Srinagar and Satwari in Jammu with an investment of Rs 5 crore. “We’ll help in faster procurement of milk, make the plants viable, and hand it over to farmers,” a GCMMF official said. The processed milk at the plants is now being marketed by GCMMF under a new brand called ‘Snowcap’ in the state.