Amit Shah launched farmer-oriented activities during NDDB’s Diamond Jubilee Year and Birth-Anniversary of Shri Tribhuvandas Patel

Anand: Amit Shah,  Union Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation launched farmer-oriented activities during NDDB’s Diamond Jubilee Year and the birth anniversary of Shri Tribhuvandas Patel ji at NDDB’s TK Patel Auditorium on 22nd October 2024 in Anand. Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Panchayati Raj; Dr SP Singh Baghel, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Panchayati Raj; Shri George Kurian, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Minority Affairs; Shri Raghavjibhai Patel, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Cow-Breeding and Fisheries, Government of Gujarat; Shri Jagdish Vishwakarma, Hon’ble Minister of State for Cooperation, Government of Gujarat; Shri Miteshbhai Patel, Hon’ble Member of Parliament (Loksabha), Ms Alka Upadhyaya, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt of India and Dr Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB graced the occasion, among other dignitaries from the dairy and allied sector.

In his address Chief Guest, Shri Amit Shah highlighted the selfless dedication and contribution of Shri Tribhuvan Das Patel ji to the nation by initiating dairy cooperative movement which today is supporting livelihood of millions of dairy farmers, ensuring women empowerment and nutrition to the children. He further called for increasing the depth and spread of dairy cooperatives in new areas in which White Revolution 2.0 and formation of 2 lakh new cooperatives will play a major role.

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation highlighted the role played by NDDB since its inception in bringing about white revolution by implementing series of programmes to bring prosperity through dairying. He further mentioned that NDDB is now playing a larger role not only in the dairy sector but also in the allied activities like fruit & vegetable. He also said that dairy cooperatives have successfully demonstrated ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’ vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and has created a robust mechanism for management of dung which apart from providing benefits to farmers in terms of additional income, fuel and fertiliser is also now giving carbon credit to farmers.

The event commenced with Hon’ble Union Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation laying the foundation stone of NDDB’s new office building in Anand along with laying foundation stone of other significant projects such as Mother Dairy’s Fruit & Vegetable Processing Plant in Itola, Vadodara and IDMC’s Polyfilm Plant in Narela, Delhi. In addition, the event featured launch of Gir Ghee from Mother Dairy and Badri Ghee from Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation which are leveraging the traceability mechanism of Bharat Pashudhan.

Hon’ble Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Panchayati Raj Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh stated that under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, the country has made significant progress in milk production with several new initiatives like Indigenous Sex Sorted Semen, Unified Genomic Chip, Genomic Services for farmers etc. He also praised Shri Tribhuvandas Das Patel ji for initiating dairy cooperative movement and thanked the Ministry of Cooperation, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying and NDDB to take this journey forward. He mentioned that the Government is going to support initiatives to bring more milk in the organised sector which will ensure quality of milk and milk products.

Dr Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB welcomed the dignitaries and highlighted the significance of the day and events which got inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Guest. During his welcome address, Dr Shah mentioned that with guidance and continued support from the central government, NDDB is committed to take new innovations, initiatives and activates to make our dairy sector more remunerative to farmers as well as making India a major player in the global dairy sector. He further mentioned that Amit Shah ji’s faith and dedication towards cooperation has been a constant source of inspiration for all institutions including NDDB, which are striving for bringing the prosperity of farmers through cooperation.

During the event, Manipur Milk Union was also given financial support by handing over of cheque to Manipur Milk Union by Hon’ble Chief Guest under the NDDB’s scheme ‘Revitalising Producer Owned Institutions’. Mother Dairy also shared the profit earned to farmers from whom they had purchased apricots from Ladakh, apples from Himachal Pradesh and pineapples from Meghalaya and making it available to the consumers. Further. first of its kind initiative in the dairy sector for monetisation of carbon credits in the country, dairy farmers from Rajasthan and Assam received payments under the NDDB and Sustain Plus Manure Management Programme. This represents a significant step towards ensuring additional income for dairy farmers through carbon credits on a sustainable basis.

In addition, several Memorandum of Understandings were also signed among reputed institutions to leverage mutual expertise across the dairy value chain including organics which will help taking the sector forward. These agreement included: collaboration between NDDB and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to conduct cutting-edge research in One-Health focusing on innovation in animal health and sustainability; collaboration of National Cooperative Organics Limited with Mother Dairy and NDDB Mrida Limited to promote distribution of organic products as well as promoting organic farming practices; collaborations of  NDDB and Suzuki R&D Center India (SRDI) with Amul and Mehsana Milk Union to establish compressed biogas plants for rural mobility enhancing sustainable energy production along with organic ferilisers; partnership between NDDB and the Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, to use remote sensing technology to assess fodder resources for improved resource management.