JOIN USUppur to get new dairy building
The Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union has decided to extend the unit’s structure to the 5.90-acre site at Uppur.
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, the union president Raviraj Hedge said that the move is being taken in the backdrop of non availability of sufficient space to take up the production of all milk produce in Manipal diary. “A huge structure and other facilities to accommodate all the production functions would come up in the Uppur site.
The project is taken up at a cost of Rs 92 crore. The work is expected to get over by December 2018,” he said.
He said plans have also been chalked out to convert the Manipal dairy building into an ice-cream manufacturing unit. The programme to lay the foundation stone to the new structure would be inaugurated by district in-charge minister Pramod Madhwaraj on April 16, while former chief minister Yeddyurappa would lay the foundation stone to the structure.
Udupi unit
“The unit in Udupi accumulates nearly 1.87 lakh litres of milk a day with the involvement of more than 326 cooperative milk producers’ union. There is market for 1.20 lakh litres of milk on an average per day in Udupi.
“There are 35,680 active members who are a fraction of the milk producing associations. The unit was set up in 1974, under the title Canara Milk Union by T A Pai, inspired by the Amul founder Dr Varghese Kurian. Initially, 3,000 liters of milk was collected every day. In 1985, it was merged into the Dakshina Kannada Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union. By 1986, the amount of milk collected was 4,458 litres,” he reminisced.
He said that initially the processing capacity of the dairy was 20,000 litres. “In 1997, the capacity was increased to 30,000. In 2004, it became 60,000 litres and in 2011, the capacity increased to 80,000 litres.
Currently, the milk processing and packaging is done in Manipal and curds and other products are produced in Mangaluru dairy. The process incurs Rs five lakh expenses every month. Despite all odds, the maximum processing power used during the milk collection is 190% and by 2021-22, the capacity would be hiked to 239%,” he said.
Stating that there are currently 95 BMC milk centres, he said that in order to strengthen the milk accumulation process, seven veterinary camps are held which offers free service. “Nearly 10,000 artificial insemination in cattle have taken place. By the next five years, the collection of milk is expected to reach 2.76 lakh litres and the sale 1.57 lakh litres. The curds sold would be around 32,000 kg a day.
“However, as against the demand for 15 metric tons of butter, only 4-5 metric tons of butter is produced. Most of the fat protein content of the milk is not extracted as the milk powder is used for the Ksheera Bhagya progamme, where the milk prepared would retain the fat and protein contents,” Hegde added.
“Up to 65% farmers are already covered until January under the Aadhaar link programme. The remaining 35% would be covered shortly. The subsidy amount to the farmers is sometimes delayed owing to the delay in linking of Aadhaar number to bank accounts,” he said.