AP Government to sign another pact with Amul on Nov 25

Tiruapati: Minister for animal husbandry and dairy development Sidiri Appala Raju said that the state government was going to sign an MoU with international milk brand Amul on November 25, to bring reforms in dairy industry and improve farmers' income. He visited the Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University campus here on Thursday and participated in many developmental programmes which were arranged by university officials.

It may be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh government and Amul signed an MoU on July 21 under which the Gujarat-based milk cooperative giant will procure and marketing milks from villages and encourage milk societies, mainly run by women. The procurement of milk will start on November 20 in some districts.

Addressing the officials and progressive women farmers on the occasion, the minister advised them to give green fodder as feed to cattle for getting better milk yield. He appreciated the university supplying green fodder seeds at nominal cost to farmers to grow them in their fields.

Further, he added that veterinary scientists must focus on development of various breeds and providing nutritious feed. Farmers can get better milk yield only through feeding the green fodder to cattle. They should recognise this fact in dairy development. Varsity faculty should educate the farmers and provide the technical support to them," Appala Raju said.

Teaching and training of the veterinary students have to enhance the annual income of farmers in the state as the government was expecting such type of result-oriented teaching and research from the veterinary and dairy scientists, he said.

Later, Appala Raju inaugurated the state-level veterinary assistants' training programme in the university board meeting hall. Interacting with progressive dairy women farmers, he enquired about their income sources and problems faced them in dairy industry.

In this connection he informed them that now there was no scarcity of veterinary assistants in the villages. The government has appointed one veterinary assistant for every 1,000 cattle in villages and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was showing keen interest in developing farmers by giving a boost to dairy industry. For this, the government would take technical and marketing support from Amul, he added.

In the programme, SVVU vice-chancellor Prof V Padmanabha Reddy, Srikalahasti MLA B Madhusudan Reddy, ThamballaPalle MLA P Dwarakanath Reddy and animal husbandry Joint director Madhusudana Rao took part.