Dairy farming lucrative, viable economic activity

Ganderbal, Mar 15: Sajid Bashir Shah of district Ganderbal was among the educated unemployed youth of J&K, with a MBA degree in hand. He always had an eye for business after finding it futile to run after the government jobs.
He once visited the veterinary campus Ganderbal to obtain first hand information about the scopes of dairy farming and other allied schemes with a mind to establish a dairy Unit in the district to earn his livelihood.
The highly enthusiastic Sajid Bashir Shah gathered all the requisite information about the Integrated Dairy Development Scheme (IDDS) and found it very interesting, lucrative and viable economic activity.
Without wasting any time, he applied under the flagship IDD scheme for establishment of dairy farm. The scheme introduced by the Government, which not only focuses on providing financial assistance to the beneficiary, but also supporting the dairy producers by providing bulk milk cooling unit at, paneer making machine, khoya making, dahi making, cream separator, ice cream making machine, butter and ghee making machine, milk van, milk ATM and DG Set at 50% subsidy.
The duly prepared case was swiftly approved by the department, and Mr. Shah established the dairy farm with 25 cows within a fortnight of its approval.
Initially, he procured one milking machine and DG set under the scheme for scientific milking of cows with uninterrupted power supply.
The dairy unit was established at Darekpora Sehpora Ganderbal under IDDS in 2021-22. The farmer currently rears high quality Crossbred Holstein Frisian and Crossbred Jersey animals, besides having a good quality crop of heifers and calves ready.
The lactation numbers of animals at the farm range from one year to 4 year with an average daily milk production of 18-20 litres per cow. The estimated annual milk production of the farm is about 1.67 lakh ltrs with a turnover on account of sale of milk and other farm products is about Rs 60 lakh.
After deducting all the expenses incurred on feeding, breeding, labour, culling, medications and vaccination, the estimated yearly profit of the dairy farm is Rs. 12.00 lakh, besides employment generation for at least 07 persons.
These figures in itself speak volumes about the potential impact that these schemes can have in employment generation, poverty alleviation and food security.
According to him dairy is one of the most important sectors and the vast population living in rural areas of the district relies on dairy and livestock for their livelihood and improving the position of the dairy sector in J&K is directly proportional to improving the socio-economic condition of people.
This is the reason that more unemployed people, especially youth, have shown their interests in investing in this sector which is authenticated by the fact that more young entrepreneurs have already applied for various components to avail benefits of these schemes, introduced by the Government under IDDS aimed to provide a sustainable means of income generation and self-employment for themselves besides a source of employment and inspiration for others.
The beneficiary is all praise for the schemes, introduced by the Government through the Department of Animal Husbandry and is of the view that such schemes will go a long way in providing a much needed boost to the dairy sector in the valley thereby will increase employment avenues for the people of J&K, especially educated youth and decrease the unemployment ration to a great extent.