Milk production a difficult sector in Nagaland

‘Nagas are not milk drinkers

Eastern Mirror Desk Dimapur, Oct. 13: A report of the Committee on Estimates pertaining to department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry (V & AH) suggests that the milk production sector in Nagaland may be a difficult economic component and sector. The reason, a report stated, the Naga people are not really given to drinking milk. According to the Committee on Estimates’ 135th report on the action taken by the government on the observations and recommendations that was made in the 131st report on the estimates of the V & AH department presented on Aug. 8 2019, "the department has undertaken a huge responsibility to improve quality breeding of animals, enhancement of production, employment opportunities, consultancy and veterinary education services." The 131st report containing six recommendations was presented to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on Sep. 18 2018 for implementations within a period of three months and the action taken report from the government was received on Feb. 20 2019. The report was adopted on June 20 2019. In the action that was taken, the report maintained that "quality poultry birds i.e. low input technology (LIT) birds are being provided to the needy farmers after providing full veterinary health coverage." These birds, it stated, are provided for free to farmers for production of meat and employment generation. Similarly, pigs are provided for free as part of various schemes to increase pork production and minimise the demand and supply gap in the state. Another area in which the report stated the department was making efforts was improvement of cattle breed for milk production. "This area is a difficult sector because Nagas are traditionally not milk drinkers and dairy farmers of quality milk cattle like Jersey and Holstein Friesian. Efforts are being put into cattle development through artificial insemination using high quality artificial insemination straws sourced from India as well as from USA as these straws are beyond the reach of individual farmers," the report stated.

Lack of transparency

The second observation by the Committee on Estimates stated that the "department has failed to furnish appropriate details to the queries on expenditure during the year 2011-14 which reflects lack of transparency." The committee recommended that the department should show clear financial records, and desired the department furnish the break-up expenditure during the year 2011-14 (both plan and non-plan) while furnishing the action-taken report. The third recommendation stated that experts from the department should be involved in the selection and monitoring of the schemes, to progress and that the department should initiate follow up work with post-verification on the details of its management. The committee stated that the department in accordance with the central government’s guideline, was implementing Diary Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (DEDS) and Entrepreneurship Development for Employment Generation (EDEG) through convergence with NABARD and banks. It stated that "the involvement of the department was restricted to finalisation of the unit cost of the various components and selections of the beneficiaries are done by the banks." Also, "the department shall take up the matter and put forward the recommendation in the State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) of NABARD and State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) for holistic and equal participation of all stakeholders so that the government acts as efficient facilitator." The committee's fourth observation was that the department was successful in providing coolers and generators to some interior areas. However, it suggested that the department should move deeper into the interior areas and identify the various needs of the farmers as there are farmers who might be facing issues of storage and transportation. The committee reported that proposal for installing a bulk cooler, generator, and artificial insemination facilities and other logistics shall be proposed to the government of India through the Nagaland State Dairy Cooperative Federation in the coming financial year to address issues faced by dairy farmers in the state. In its fifth recommendation, the committee was of the view that the department should make efforts to identify genuine farmers and deserving beneficiaries and continue with schemes to give benefit to, and to sustain the farmers in the selection of beneficiaries of schemes like the ADDP. The report stated that ADDP was not implemented at present and that similar project targeting the dairy farmers are being taken up as ‘dairy community farm’ of the State Earmarked Programme whereby infrastructure, crossbred dairy cattle, bulk cooler to name a few shall be provided as "community asset" for up-scaling milk production in the state. It is also to create an "organised milk production and marketing system," it stated. Further, the department furnish the action taken report on the observations/recommendations of the committee within three months from the date of Aug. 8 2019, the sixth recommendation by the committee stated.