New laboratories will be established in four newly created district cooperative milk unions under the National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) to ensure the supply of quality milk products from farmers, announced Milk and Dairy Development Minister Mano Thangaraj, at the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday.
The labs would be set up in Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Dharmapuri, and Karur unions. Similarly, other labs across the State would also be improved under the NPDD.
In a bid to monitor the operations of Bulk Milk Cooler Units – both at the district and the State level – automatic milk collection system would be installed in 500 such units to procure quality milk from producers and provide a spot acknowledgement system for payments, he said.
Measures are being taken to obtain ISO:22000 certifications for dairy plants in Ambattur, Sholinganallur, and Tiruvannamalai. Work would be undertaken to obtain certification for all the dairy plants across the State by December this year to ensure quality standard.
In his speech in the Assembly, Mr. Thangaraj said that most of the cooperative unions have turned profitable. Measures are being carried out to improve the profitability of a few other unions, too, through administrative reforms, he added.
The Dairy Development Department is in the process of appointing experts to suggest recommendations for automation and digital transformation of the dairy industry. Various infrastructure projects are being implemented to increase the milk handling capacity to 66 lakh litres per day and create job opportunities for youngsters, he said.
Source: The Hindu
