Finance Scheme To Encourage Milk Production

The scheme will give loans to those wanting to purchase dairy cattle, through Dwarka Milk, a private processing company.

Loans to purchase cattle are hard to get when producers own no capital, said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Dwarka Milk will also offer producers the opportunity to purchase cattle feed on cheaper credit, as well as provide free insurance.

In the last two years, milk production in India increased by three to 4.5 million tonnes a year. Although increasing, the rate of increase is much slower than previous years. This has led to demand - supply mismatch.

Speaking about the initiative Kapil Rajput, Managing Director, Dwarka Milk said: "The price of food in India has inflated substantially, and a lot of this is down to a milk shortage. Since India has a large pool of small farmers, we want to encourage them to start up in the dairy industry to help bring down food inflation in the long run."

As well as increasing milk production, the scheme will help small, local farmers improve their livelihoods.