Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh government has roped in NDDB Dairy Services (NDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to promote women empowerment and entrepreneurship.
The roadmap entails setting up women owned milk producer companies to harness the dairying potential of UP’s 17 districts and empowering nearly 150,000 women dairy farmers.
A milk producer company is a Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) which embodies principles that are similar to cooperatives.
Encouraged by Balinee Milk Producer Company, Jhansi and Kashee Milk Producer Company, Varanasi, the state government launched ‘Mahila Samarthya Yojana’ (MSY) in 2021-22 to promote women owned enterprises and allocated Rs 200 crore in the budget.
Meanwhile, the project will be anchored by UP State Rural Livelihood Mission and the technical support will be provided by NDS.
Under a collaborative agreement between UPSRLM and NDS, three women Milk Producer Companies (MPCs) have been incorporated namely Saamarthya Milk Producer Company, Raebareli; Shri Baba Gorakhnath Kripaa Milk Producer Company, Gorakhpur and Srijanee Milk Producer Company, Bareilly.
They will collectively procure milk from over 2,800 villages of 17 districts enrolling 150,000 women dairy farmers, and procuring over 700,000 litres of milk daily by the 5th year of operations.
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“MSY is a path-breaking scheme of UP to promote women empowerment through skilling of rural women and supporting entrepreneurship. The state has earmarked a substantial outlay towards the implementation of scheme,” UP SRLM, State Mission Director, C Indumathy said