Andhra Pradesh: Automatic milk collection to boost farmers’ revenue

Andhra Pradesh is marching towards a big transformation in milk production with the state government deciding to take advanced milk procurement and chilling infrastructure closer to the doorsteps of farmers.

The government has begun the construction of about 8,000 Automatic Milk Collection Units (AMCU) across the state. The AMCUs will help gauge milk quality and give immediate assessment to farmers on their returns per litre.

Similarly, the state government has also launched the construction of over 10,000 Bulk Milk Chilling Units (BMCU) which would help store milk in low temperatures so that it would be fresh till the stock reached dairy plants at different locations. The new advanced infrastructure to be located in Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) has been planned to increase milk production and procurement multifold and enhance revenue of dairy farmers.

The state government is spending close to Rs.4,000 crore to complete the works targeted to help dairy farmers.

“We are hopeful of completing the civil works in next two months and bring the units into operation in another six months,” said AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation (APDDCF) managing director Babu A.

By bringing more milk collection centre and bulk chilling units closer to the doorsteps of the farmers, the government is intending to take the overall milk procurement to nearly one crore litres from the existing six lakh litres.

At least six district level cooperative milk dairies with a capacity of 2.5 lakh litres production were closed down during the previous TDP government. About 141 BMCUs were also turned dysfunctional due to the negligence of authorities in the previous regime. The state government had started measures to bring all the BMCUs into operation in addition to opening the new centres.

Although the government wanted to operationalize the defunct district dairies by leasing them out to Amul, it was temporarily put on hold due to legal hurdles.

“Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is determined to usher in milk revolution in the state by involving women self-help groups. We are involving the SHGs into dairy activities in a big way as it would be fetching decent revenues to the families of the farmers,” said Dr S Appala Raju, the dairy development minister.