The cabinet approved scheme budget of INR 4558 crore for dairy farming. The decision will benefit around 95 lakh dairy farmers in India.
Approval of Scheme for Dairy Farming
The approval will benefit around 50,000 villages of the country in promoting the dairy farming sector. Further, the cabinet increased outlay for Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) to INR 11,184 crore. Also, it has green signaled to increase interest subvention from 2% to 2.5% by revising the outlay. Also, the funds under DIDF will be used to establish 28,000 bulk milk coolers. As a result, the milk chilling capacity will increase by 140 lakh litres per day.
The government will make efforts to enhance milk drying capacity to 210 metric tonnes per day. Further, it will provide 28,000 milk testing equipment to check adulteration in milk. Further, funds will be allocated to enhance infrastructure facilities to provide remunerative prices to milk producers for value-added milk products.
Increase in Interest Subvention
The government will provide interest subvention up to 2.5 percent to NABARD with effect from 30 July 2019 to 2030-31. However, if there is a further increase in the cost of funds, it will be borne by the borrowers. Besides, the government has revised the funding period of the scheme to 2018-19 to 2022-23. Further, it extended the repayment period up to 2030-31 with spillover to the first quarter of 2031-32. Information and Broadcasting minister, Prakash Javadekar addressed media in this regard. He stated that the decisions will take the ‘White Revolution’ in the country to the next level.
Effects on Dairy Farming
After the cabinet’s approval for the scheme, shares of dairy firms rose 1.5-10%. Prabhat Dairy jumped 1.6% to ₹84.65, and Vadilal Industries gained 1.7% to ₹840. While Hatsun Agro went up to 2.5% to ₹665.90, Umang Dairies climbed 9.4% to ₹49.30. The scheme would focus on modernization under DIDF for chilling infrastructure, electronic testing kits, and project management and learning.
In conclusion, the decisions will have positive effects on the dairy farming community and help supply of good quality milk in India.