KOCHI: Women are actively being engaged for the production of safe and good quality milk as part of the Animal Husbandry Department’s Enhancement of Safe Milk Production for Improvement of Public Health (ESMPIPH). Kottoor grama panchayat is forming women-only dairy farmer clusters towards this.
Each cluster will comprise 30 women farmers. As part of the ESMPIPH, the department will modernise 300 cow sheds. In the later stage of the project, value added product units will also be set up in the panchayat to ensure more income to farmers.
“The scheme aims to enhance the quality of milk by intervening scientifically at the farmer’s level. The department will give training to the farmers on how to collect milk with high quality,” said P P Bineesh, veterinary doctor, Kottoor animal husbandry hospital.Quality depends on the microbial load in the milk and the department is aiming to decrease this load in the milk. The solutions to reduce the presence of microbes are hygiene of the farmer and cattle shed and health of the cattle.
“While milking the cow, there is a chance that droplets of dung, urine and other wastes will enter the milk. By preventing this, the quality of milk can be increased,” he said.The department in association with the grama panchayat and the district panchayat will help farmers improve cattle rearing facilities. As part of this, the trio will give financial assistance to farmers to construct separate clean milking shed.
The district panchayat will contribute Rs 18 lakh and the Kottoor gramapanchayat will contribute is Rs 7 lakh. To ensure cows are in good health, the department will undertake checkups and provide medicines.
As of now, six cooperative milk collection societies function in Kottoor and collect 3,000 litres of milk per day. As per the latest cattle census, there are 2,300 cows and 100 buffalos are in the panchayat. The staff in the societies will be trained to collect milk safely.