India Dairy Feeds inaugurates first Balanced Cattle Feed manufacturing unit for AMUL in Bengal

India Dairy Feeds inaugurates first Balanced Cattle Feed manufacturing unit for AMUL in Bengal

THE STATE-OF-THE-ART MODERN BALANCED CATTLE FEED MANUFACTURING UNIT OF M/S INDIA DAIRY FEEDS PVT LTD IS THE FIRST SUCH PLANT THAT WOULD CATER TO THE LOCAL BALANCED CATTLE FEED NEEDS OF THE DAIRY GIANT AMUL IN BENGAL. THE 200 MTPD PRODUCTION CAPACITY WOULD BE ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS BACKWARD INTEGRATION FOR AMUL DAIRY WHICH IS SET TO EXPAND ITS OPERATIONS IN WEST BENGAL

India Dairy Feeds Private Ltd (IDFPL), a Kolkata-based contract manufacturing firm, today inaugurated a state-of-the-art Balanced Cattle Feed manufacturing plant at Joyrambati in Bankura district, West Bengal. Dr K Rathnam, Managing Director, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producer's Union Ltd (KDCMPUL), popularly known as Amul Dairy, formally inaugurated the plant today.

This is the first such Cattle Feed manufacturing plant under the franchisee of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producer's Union Ltd (KDCMPUL), popularly known as Amul Dairy, in the country with a 200 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) capacity that would cater to the local need of Amul which, in turn, is set to scale up its operations in West Bengal.

“The balanced cattle feed manufacturing plant would be a major step in backward integration for Amul Dairy and would go a long way in increasing the milk production in the state. We look forward to expand our footprint in the eastern region and create necessary infrastructure,” said Dr K Rathnam, MD, Amul Dairy.

“KDCMPUL or Amul Dairy in 2015 decided to select a suitable entrepreneur to establish a modern 200 (MTPD) balanced cattle feed plant in West Bengal. It is a great honour that our company was selected after stringent quality controls and compliances. Among others, balanced cattle feed is an important input toward increasing milk yield in bovines. We would increase the production capacity of the plant as per the local demand,” said Anirban Nath, Director, India Dairy Feeds Private Ltd.

“Initially, the cattle feed plant envisages producing BIS Type-III variant feed Nutri Plus; and responding to the farmers’ expectation, the plant may venture into producing few more variants in course of time. It must be our joint endeavor to ensure supply of best quality feed at a competitive price,” said Mr Anirban Nath. Mr Nath, who is also the Promoter-Director of India Dairy Products Ltd (IDPL), has been manufacturing Amul Milk, Ice-cream, Dahi, Lassi and Amul Kool. IDPL also manufactures milk, ghee, lassi under its own brand India Dairy.

Once a milk starved country, currently India has become a milk sufficient country having produced 146.3 million metric tonnes in 2014-15 and accounting for 17 per cent of global milk production. India also has the highest number of milk herds (299.9 million cattle and 105 million buffaloes as per the census in 2012). Nearly 85 per cent of India’s 125 crore population dwell in rural settings. Of whom, nearly 44 per cent households rear dairy animals for their livelihood whose average yield varies from 3 to 5 litres per animal per day.

Farmers are used to utilize crop residue, irrespective of their inferior quality, required to maintain the herd to produce economic volume of milk. Moreover, there is considerable shortage of green fodder, concentrate, other feed supplements; this is further aggravated by lack of awareness among farmers about scientific feeding practices.

Recently one of the most modern 1600 MTPD cattle feed plant has been established at Kapdivab in Kaira district. Since these plants are located at a great distance away and are hardly able to meet the local demand in states like West Bengal.

Thus a necessity is felt to establish/create facilities for making the feeds available to millions of farmers in the eastern part of the country. With this objective, the KDCMPUL (Amul Dairy) has started identifying local partners like India Dairy Feeds Pvt Ltd.

The produce of this Joyrambati plant would contain the most essential ingredients - Proteins, Fat, Carbohydrates, Minerals etc., as per BIS norms. Initially it would cater to the need of dairy farmers, both through village co-operatives under Amul as well as to other areas through selected vendors. This is expected to largely meet the local demand.

The dairy husbandry is largely managed by women folk in the rural area; given a conducive environment i.e. Training, Management, Financial assistance and Ready market, which our Co-operatives assure; they may find more interest and join in the profession thereby, raising their income. It is established that earning a minimum of Rs 4500 per animal per month is assured; and rearing 5 animals managed by a family will ensure earnings of up to Rs 22,500 per month for the family.

West Bengal Scenario

As per the Census, 2012, the number of dairy animals in West Bengal stands at 162 lakh; with a conservative estimate of concentrate use for the animal @ 3 kg per animal per day, the daily requirement is estimated to be 486 lakh per day i.e. 48,600 MTPD. Therefore, there stands a great demand of concentrates in this region as well.