17 May 2012

2 minute read

Asia

Presently put together, the dairy cooperatives that are members of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) have a production capacity of 4,200 metric tonne per day. This will be scaled up to 7,800 metric tonne per day in the next two years through as many as eight new plants being set up across the state, reports The Times of India.

"Presently, our member unions have 10 plants for production of cattle feed. In two years, eight new cattle feed plants will come up across the state adding 3,600 metric tonne capacity. This is being done to support milk procurement network as a single cattle requires one kilogram cattle feed daily besides green and dry fodder," GCMMF's managing director R S Sodhi said on Wednesday.

The new plants will be set up by Anand's Amul Dairy, Mehsana's Dudhsagar Dairy, Himmatnagar-based Sabar Dairy, Palanpur-based Banas Dairy, Panchmahal's Panchamrut Dairy, Valsad's Vasudhara Dairy, Bhavnagar's Sarvottam Dairy and Amreli's Amar Dairy. The total investment is around Rs 500 crore.

With two plants, Mehsana's Dudhsagar Dairy presently has the highest cattle feed production capacity - 1,400 metric tonne per day followed by Anand's Amul Dairy which runs a cattle feed plant with 1,050 tonne per day capacity.

Banas Dairy manufactures 600 tonne cattle feed per day whereas Sabar Dairy runs a plant with 450 tones capacity. Surat-based Sumul Dairy runs a plant with 300 tonne capacity whereas both Ahmedabad's Aabad Dairy and Panchamrut Dairy have 100 tonne capacity each.

Vadodara-based Baroda Dairy has 150 tones per day capacity. Valsad's Vasudhara Dairy has hired a plant from where it procures 50 tonne cattle feed.

It is estimated that to meet Gujarat's milk production that stands at around 2.40 crore litres milk per day, the sector requires 20,000 metric tonne of cattle feed daily.

Of the total milk production, 50 per cent goes to the organised sector which requires at least 10,000 metric tonne cattle feed daily.