Amul begins milk collection in Krishna, 6th district in Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched AP Amul Project in Krishna district online from his Tadepalli camp office here on Wednesday. The scheme under Jagananna Pala Velluva programme will procure milk from 264 villages across the district by Amul.

Amul, Gujarat’s milk cooperative, was introduced in the state last year and it is collecting milk from farmers in 1046 villages spread over Guntur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Prakasam and West Godavari districts so far.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the Amul’s entry into milk procurement had broken the monopoly where the milk producers were exploited. Now, the entry of Amul is giving better returns to the farmers in the state, he added.

The chief minister stated that Amul is the largest cooperative in the country and globally stands at eighth position in milk processing. From last December, in all the five districts, the company had procured over 168.50 lakh litres of milk and paid a sum of Rs 71 crores to the dairy farmers, who were able to earn up to Rs 15 additionally per litre.

In Krishna district alone, 37,474 farmers have been identified along with 51 milk centres. He said that the farmers are earning Rs 20 more than on each litre of milk as Amul is paying Rs 74.78 per litre, while the Krishna Milk Union is paying only Rs 44.80.

He said that Amul is also sharing profits with the farmers who supply milk for a minimum of 182 days and also providing quality fodder at low prices through AMCUs. In order to ensure all the women are being paid in a transparent manner on the basis of quality checks, bulk milk cooling units and automatic milk collection units would be set up as part of the Amul project in the next two years.

The chief minister stated that many dairy cooperatives have turned into private firms, as those in government have interests in private dairies, they never bothered to develop cooperatives or the welfare of dairy farmers. Because of Amul, all the other dairies are also paying a decent price to the dairy farmers, he added.

The chief minister said the government had established a Market Intervention Fund to avoid farmers from selling their crops at lower prices because of middlemen, and also procured all sorts of crops through price stabilisation fund by providing remunerative prices.

Minister for fisheries and animal husbandry S. Appalaraju, minister for endowments Vellampally Srinivas, agriculture special chief secretary Poonam Malakondaiah and AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation MD A Babu and other officials of Amul were present at the event.