VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the Jagananna Palavelluva- AP Amul Project will give a fillip to the empowerment of women self-help groups by encouraging milk cooperatives in the government sector. He was launching the project in West Godavari district virtually from his camp office on Friday.
He said the government had kept its promise to the dairy farmers by strengthening the milk cooperatives and offering remunerative price by signing an agreement with Amul. He said the project was first started on December 2 last year, and milk was being collected from 722 villages in Guntur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Prakasam districts. Now, milk would be collected from 153 villages in West Godavari district.
On why the government roped in Amul, he said that it is the largest dairy cooperative in the country, where all the shareholders are dairy farmers. It is paying remunerative prices and women in Guntur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Prakasam districts are able to earn Rs 5 to Rs15 more per litre than the existing price. He noted that 52.93 lakh litres of milk was so far collected from 13,739 women dairy farmers in 722 villages in Guntur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Prakasam districts, where a sum of Rs 24.54 crore was paid to them.
Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out that Amul had paid Rs 4.06 crore more than the existing price by providing an additional income. In order to ensure that all the women are being paid in a transparent manner on the basis of quality check, bulk milk cooling units and automatic milk collection units would be set up in 9,899 villages at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore as part of the Amul project in the next two years.
Amul MD Sodhi said that Jagan Mohan Reddy had brought revolutionary changes for the development of villages, especially in the dairy sector, by encouraging women farmers on a large-scale. He informed that Amul company is being operated by the farmers and the profits are being passed on to them. Animal husbandry minister S. Appalaraju, agriculture special chief secretary Poonam Malakondaiah and AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation managing director Babu and others were present at the event.
