Goa Government Offers 1 Crore Subsidy For Dairy Farming

To boost milk production in the state and encourage large dairy units, the Animal Husbandry Department has floated a scheme of a subsidy of Rs 1 crores. It proposed to promote dairy farming as an industry and provide self-employment to youth as well.

To boost milk production and encourage large dairy units, the Goa government has unveiled a scheme to provide Rs 1 crore subsidy for community dairy farming. The scheme aims at promoting dairy farming as an industry and providing self-employment to the local youth.

According to Herald, the existing dairy farms in the state are small in size consisting of around 10 animals.  Due to their limited landholding, farmers, in turn, were unable to run a profitable business and were also unable to expand their existing units.

To alleviate this problem the Directorate of Animal Husbandry has floated a scheme (Community Dairy Farming Scheme Amended 2019), to not only boost production but to have large dairy farm through the concept of community farming.  This, the directorate points out, will not only reduce the cost of production by sharing infrastructure facilities like cattle shed, bulk milk cooler, feed, mixing plant and so on, but it will make the state milk-sufficient and will also provide clean and hygienic milk to the consumers.

According to the Times of India, the directorate while explaining the scheme said the amount of subsidy is limited to Rs 1 crore at the rate of 50% of permissible unit cost.

Under the scheme, the beneficiary community group will have to run the unit for at least ten years after signing an agreement with the authorities and all formalities completed.

The scheme was proposed to encourage dairy farming with a minimum of 50 Milch cows and with latest ultra-modern equipment.  Accordingly, a community group should have at least five members and should have irrigated land for green fodder cultivation at a minimum rate of 5 acres for 50 animals.  Each member must necessarily have some dairy experience and be residing in Goa for at least five years.

Milch cows under the scheme must necessarily be purchased from cattle melas held at Government Livestock Farms or from outside Goa.  The cost per cow would be restricted to Rs.70,000 and it is expected to yield 2700 liters of milk/lactation.

Source: Navhind Times | TOI