Refurbished milk processing plant inaugurated in Nagpur

NDDB’s subsidiary Mother Dairy upgraded plant

• Mother Dairy will be investing around Rs 65 crore to upgrade the Nagpur plant and setting up of milk procurement network in the regions of Marathwada & Vidarbha.
• The milk procurement set up in the initial 3 years will cover around 3000 villages across 11 districts covering about 60000 farmers.
• A part of the investment would also be made towards development of sales network across the city with 100 milk booths at key spots.

04 June, 2017: Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra inaugurated the refurbished milk processing plant in Civil Lines area of Nagpur on 4 June 2017. Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt of India and Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Govt of India graced the occasion as Chief Guests. The Hon’ble Ministers of Maharashtra Government – Shri Pandurang Fundkar, Minister for Agriculture & Horticulture; Shri Chandrashekar Bawankule, Minister for Energy, New & Renewable Energy, State Excise; Shri Mahadev Jankar, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development & Fisheries and Shri Dilip Rath, Chairman, NDDB were also present.

The plant has been upgraded as per the agreement between Government of Maharashtra and National Dairy Development Board signed on September 14, 2016. Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will operate the plant and take up dairy development initiatives like setting up of milk procurement network in Maharashtra.

In his address, Shri Fadnavis said that Vidarbha and Marathwada region of Maharashtra includes some of the most backward districts in the country with extreme drought conditions prevailing over many years. Dairying often remains the only hope in such adverse climatic conditions to ease farmer distress. He is confident that NDDB and its subsidiaries will put in their best efforts to implement the dairy development initiative for the benefit of the milk producers of Vidarbha and Marathwada.

Lauding NDDB’s efforts, Shri Radha Mohan Singh conveyed that dairy development activities in Vidarbha and Marathwada will ensure regular and better returns to milk producers. He said that the core components of this dairy development initiative are productivity enhancement of milch animals and creation of sustainable farmers owned institutions.

Shri Nitin Gadkari said that NDDB will bring milk revolution in Vidarbha and Marathwada. NDDB’s initiative will also put in place a fair, transparent and sustainable system. He is hopeful that the farmers would grab this opportunity and adopt dairy farming as an additional source of income.

Shri Dilip Rath, Chairman, NDDB said that the newly refurbished dairy plant has been completed in a record time of 4 months and has a milk processing capacity of 50000 litres per day expandable to 2 lac litres per day. In addition, Mother Dairy is setting up manufacturing lines for value added dairy range like curd, chach etc, which is expected to be commissioned by September 2017. The plant houses equipment with latest technology to monitor and record all critical process parameters for ensuring milk quality on a continuous basis. A state-of-the-art quality control laboratory has been set up in order to test and monitor stringent quality parameters ensuring safe products for consumers.

Shri Rath requested the Government of Maharashtra to support NDDB further in execution of lease agreement for land at Gove Bhiwandi to help set up a 5 Lakh litres per day plant; allocate sufficient funds for activities such as development of Nagpuri breed, AI services, fodder development, animal health, ration balancing advisory services, which are to be implemented by the Government of Maharashtra to help increase productivity and ensure that the project coordination team is given sufficient stability of tenure.

Shri S Nagarajan, Managing Director, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd. said that Mother Dairy is committed to the cause of rural prosperity by promoting dairy development aimed to support milk producers and enhancement of farm productivity. In order to strengthen the cause, Mother Dairy is extending the reach to farmers from Marathwada & Vidarbha ensuring them with regular and remunerative market for their produce.