GUWAHATI, Aug 22 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today appealed to the dairy farmers of the State to explore the dairy market in South East Asian countries and urged them to take up dairy farming to usher in a milk revolution.
The Chief Minister said this while addressing thousands of dairy farmers on the celebration of Purabi Milk Day at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra international auditorium.
Sonowal cited the example of Amul in Gujarat and said that Assam has the potential to grow in the dairy sector and can even explore the dairy market in South East Asian countries considering the State�s geographical advantage.
�Amul has already created a market for its products in countries like Australia, the Middle East and in South East Asia. Assam also has the potential to grow in the dairy sector and it is time to resolve to capture the market in our neighbouring countries,� he said.
The Chief Minister further said that out of the Rs 25,000 crore revenue generated by Amul, Rs18,000 crore directly benefits the farmers.
Appreciating the efforts of Purabi or West Assam Milk Producers� Union Ltd (WAMUL), Sonowal said the production of WAMUL was only 500 litres per day about eight years back. �Now production of WAMUL has reached 50,000 litres per day and I want this to increase to five lakh litres per day in the next 10 years,� he said.
The Chief Minister added that Assam is yet to be self-sufficient in milk production and said the State imports two lakh litres of milk every day from outside to cater to the requirement of the consumers.
He reiterated that the Assam government has decided to invest Rs 1.20 crore in each of the 25,000 villages in Assam under the Chief Minister�s Samagra Gramin Unnayan Yojana. �One of the priority schemes of the government will be to develop the dairy sector,� he said.
Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia also appealed to the dairy farmers to take examples from the top milk producing states like Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka, and said that Assam could also improve a lot in the dairy sector.
He said that WAMUL has already handed over the management of the East Assam Milk Producers Union Limited (EAMUL) and Cachar and Karimganj (CAMUL) to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and appealed to the NDDB authorities to start work soon.
On the occasion, the employees of WAMUL also donated Rs 1 lakh � their one-day salary � to the Chief Minister�s Relief Fund.
Chairman of the WAMUL management committee Sangram Choudhury thanked the milk producers of WAMUL for their effort and said Assam can save Rs 300 crore every year if the State becomes self-sufficient in milk.
