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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday announced a slew of incentives such as advancing low interest rate loans to the beneficiaries of goatry and piggery, making milk rate stable and uniform across the state and bringing the electricity rates in dairy, fishery, poultry, goatry and piggery farming on par with agriculture sector. He also introduced a single-window system for promotion of allied farm sector.
Presiding over a series of meetings with progressive dairy farmers, piggery, goatry and fishery beneficiaries here, Badal said the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited would, henceforth, charge agriculture pump sets tariff from dairy farms, against the commercial rate being charged at present. He said eligible beneficiaries of allied farming sector will have to pay power rate of Rs 4.57 a unit from the coming cycle, against the existing Rs 7.75 a unit.
Acceding to the major demand of dairy farmers, Badal said the Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation (Milkfed) will pay uniform procurement price of milk to the producers. He said the loss incurred, if any by Milkfed, in the implementation of the decision would be compensated by the government. Badal also said the state government would provide 50 per cent subsidy on all the components of two to six desi (local) cow breeds dairy units for the promotion of indigenous breeds.
The chief minister also told farmers he had been actively pursuing the matter of lowering the fat content in cow milk from four per cent to 3.5 per cent and, thereby, to establish parity with other states and the Centre. He said the Union government had given in-principle approval to rectify the infirmity in the existing guidelines of fat content and formal orders to this effect will be issued soon.
