The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a “Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund” (DIDF).

About the Project

• Building an efficient milk procurement system by setting up of chilling infrastructure & installation of electronic milk adulteration testing equipment,
• Creation/modernization/expansion of processing infrastructure and manufacturing faculties for Value Added Products for the Milk Unions/ Milk Producer Companies.

Management of DIDF:

• The project will be implemented by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Dairy Development Cooperation (NCDC)directly through the End Borrowers such as Milk Unions, State Dairy Federations, Multi-state Milk Cooperatives, Milk Producer Companies and NDDB subsidiaries meeting the eligibility criteria under the project.

• An Implementation and Monitoring Cell (IMC) located at NDDB, Anand, will manage the implementation and monitoring of day-to-day project activities.
• The end borrowers will get the loan @ 6.5% per annum.
• The period of repayment will be 10 years with initial two years moratorium.
• The respective State Government will be the guarantor of loan repayment.
• Also for the project sanctioned if the end user is not able to contribute its share; State Government will contribute the same.

Benefits:

• The investment in diary sector will benefit 95,00,000 farmers in about 50,000 villages.
• It will help for additional milk processing capacity of 126 lakh litre per day, milk chilling capacity of 140 lakh litre per day, milk drying capacity of 210 MT per day.
• It will also support installation of 28000 Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) along with electronic milk adulteration testing equipment and increase value added products manufacturing capacity of 59.78 lakh litre per day of milk equivalent.  

Employment Generation Potential:

The implementation of DIDF scheme will generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower.

• Direct employment opportunities for about 40,000 people will be created under the scheme through project activities like expansion & modernisation of existing milk processing facilities, setting up of new processing plants, establishment of manufacturing facilities for value added products and setting up of Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) at village level.
• About 2 lakh indirect employment opportunities will be created on account of expansion of milk and milk product marketing operations from existing Tier I, II & III to Tier IV, V & VI cities/towns etc.
• This will lead to deployment of more marketing staff by Milk Cooperatives, appointment of distributors and opening of additional milk booths/retail outlets in urban/rural locations.
• With the increase in milk procurement operations of the Milk Cooperatives,there would be generation of additional manpower employment for supervision of increased milk procurement operations, transportation of milk from villages to processing units, and increased input delivery services like Artificial Insemination (AI) services, Veterinary Services, etc.

Source:PIB