Assam CM appeals farmers to look for SE Asian markets

The Dollar Business Bureau

Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, on Monday appealed to the farmers of the state to look for markets in South East Asian nations for dairy products and prodded the farmers to take up dairy farming to begin a milk revolution in Assam. 

“Considering the Assam’s geographical advantage, the state has the capability to grow in the dairy products sector and can utilise the dairy market in the countries of South-East Asia,” the Chief Minister said while addressing dairy farmers on 'Celebration of Purabi Milk Day' in Guwahati.

Sonowal cited the example of Amul, which has already set up a market for its products in the regions like Middle East, South East Asia and Australia.

He mentioned that Amul has generated a revenue of Rs.25,000 crore, out of which Rs.18,000 crore has directly benefitted the farmers. 

Sonowal appreciated the efforts of West Assam Milk Producers' Union Ltd (WAMUL), and said that WAMUL’s production was just 500 litres a day around 8 years ago. But now its production has reached 50,000 litres a day. “I want the production to grow to 5 lakh litres a day in the next 10 years," he added. 

Noting that Assam is still to become self-sufficient in the production of milk, he said every day, the state has to import 2 lakh litres of milk from outside to meet the requirements of the consumers. 

The Chief Minister further said that the state government has decided to do an investment of Rs.1.20 crore each in all the 25000 villages in Assam under the scheme of Samagra Gramin Unnayan Yojana as developing the dairy sector is one of the priorities of the government.