VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed that he is committed to the cause of women empowerment and hence implemented several welfare schemes for them including the Amul Palavelluva project to help women rear cattle, produce milk and earn money.
The Chief Minister launched the AP Amul Project in Guntur district in virtual mode from the camp office here on Friday. He said the Amul Project will start in Guntur and milk will be collected from 129 villages in the district and also from 174 villages in Chittoor district from today. The project was started with an MoU signed between Amul and the state government on July 21. “The idea is to financially empower women self-help groups through setting up of milk cooperatives in the government sector,” he said.
The CM said the Amul Palavelluva Project was started on December 2 and arrangements have been made for collection of milk from 400 villages in Chittoor, YSR Kadapa and Prakasam districts.
As a result, the women in these villages are getting 5-7 rupees more than the existing price per litre. “Milk is being collected also in some villages of my own Pulivendula constituency,” the CM said.
The Chief Minister said Amul has been paying remunerative prices to milk farmers as it stands eighth in the IFCN's rankings and its stakeholders comprised dairy farmers. Amul, a cooperative movement, pays more than the existing price per litre and the profit earned by it would be distributed among the stakeholders every six months.
The CM said Amul products are known for their high quality and superior processing systems. Apart from milk distribution, there are the Amul brand products like butter, chocolates and ice creams. These are also exported to foreign countries.
He said 41,44,000 litres of milk was collected from 10,871 women dairy farmers in 400 villages of Chittoor, Kadapa and Prakasam districts from December 2 and Rs18.46 crore has been paid to them. “Amul has paid Rs 3.52 crore more than the existing price, benefiting the women dairy farmers,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that in order to strengthen the Amul network in the state and benefit women dairy farmers, 9,899 villages across the state will be brought under its network, where bulk milk cooling units (BMCU) and automatic milk collection units (AMCU) will be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.
Also, quality animal feed will be supplied to dairy farmers through the Rytu Bharosa Kendras.
Minister for fisheries and animal husbandry Dr Seediri Appalaraju, agriculture special chief secretary Poonam Malakondaiah and APDDCF MD A Babu were present. GCMMF (Amul) MD RS Sodhi, Sabarkanta co-operative society MD Dr BM Patel, home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, MLA Vidadala Rajani and a large number of women dairy farmers from various villages participated in the event via video conference mode.
