State governments to include milk in Mid-Day Meal and Anganwadi schemes

Animal Husbandry and Dairy Secretary Tarun Shridhar has said that most states have agreed to supply milk for two days a week through the Mid Day Meal and Anganwadi schemes.

The decision was made to absorb the surplus stock of milk and ensure prices to the farmers who are in distress in key milk producing states like Maharasthra because of surplus milk production resulting in piling up of skimmed milk powder (SMP) and white butter stock.

According to Shridhar, every state is keen to do it and Rajasthan government has already confirmed its assent. The other states are reportedly working on the logistics of  converting SMP to milk, storage and other issues.

Shridhar stated that the government is taking all measures to help the farmers in the wake of the fall in procurement rate of milk and is working on policies that ensure that such situations do not arise in the future.

Presently, the country has a stock of 60,000-70,000 tonnes of white butter and 2.30 lakh tonnes SMP. The government is hoping that milk production touches 254.5 million tonnes by 2021-22.