Puducherry: Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said that against the requirement of one lakh litres of milk a day, only around 60,000 litres was now produced in Puducherry and the administration was procuring milk from neighbouring States.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on "Aspects of Food Safety and Product Diversification: Issues and Challenges" organised jointly by the Indian Dairy Association (South Zone) and Pondicherry Cooperative Milk Producers Union here on Thursday, Mr. Rangasamy said that the Government was providing subsidies to dairy farmers to boost milk production.

Members of self-help groups would now be supplied a milch animal straightway instead of directing them to approach banks for purchase of animals under a loan scheme (Each group on an average has 20 members).

The Government was also planning to supply one animal to each member additionally to enhance milk production through the self-employment projects of the SHGs. Mr. Rangasamy said that the Pondicherry Cooperative Milk Producers Union's installed capacity would be raised, with an investment of Rs. 2 crore, from one lakh litres of milk to two lakh litres a day. After seeing the genuineness of the dairy farmers' demand, the administration recently increased the procurement price to Rs 11.17 a litre from Rs 10.17 and Re 1 would be additionally available for a litre of milk as an incentive. There would be no increase in price of milk sold to consumers. Mr. Rangasamy said that the Education Department alone needed at least 28,000 litres of milk daily to operate the Rajiv Gandhi Free Breakfast Scheme in schools. The Milk Producers Union had plans to produce ice cream. He said that with the increase in demand for milk, there was need to boost production and he urged farmers to utilise all schemes.

Chairman of Indian Dairy Association M .G. Govindaiah, who welcomed, said that delegates from all the southern States and the Union Territory were participating in the technical sessions held as part of the seminar. The participants included representatives of dairy undertakings, farmers and farm labourers. Registrar of Cooperative Societies S. Sundaravadivelou, who presided, said the milk cooperative society was the first organisation in cooperative sector here.

There were 35,000 members attached to dairy-based societies now and 60 per cent of the members were women. Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies Balasubramanian and Managing Director of the Milk Producers Union B. Vasanthakumar also spoke. Chief Minister also released a souvenir on the occasion.

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