Guwahati, July 27: The supply of adulterated milk by unorganised vendors in Assam could be stopped only by immediately increasing milk yield, and putting in place the processing and marketing infrastructure, said the top official of Dairy Development Directorate. Despite adequate availability of cattlehead, their per capita yield was abysmally low at only one litre per day thereby throwing a challenge for increasing output, dairy development director Moloy Bora told here today.
For this purpose the directorate had undertaken an artificial insemination programme by cross-breeding local cows with jersey breeds which several progressive farmers had adopted.
Regarding the processing infrastructure, Bora said, most of the plants, including two dairy plants and 18 milk chilling plants, set up in the 60's all over the state were becoming dysfunctional with the machinery getting old.
Only the central dairy here and chilling plants at Lakhimpur, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Tezpur and Bokakhat were currently in operation.
As part of the processing infrastructure, he laid stress on the necessity for a cold chain of refrigerated vehicles to transport the surplus milk from one area to the deficit places.
In view of the ongoing adulterated supply of milk, particularly in Guwahati, the director said, the government was taking up with seriousness the issue of augmenting the hygienic supply of milk in the state and prioritised some sectors for the purpose. Bureau Report