The chief minister, Nitish Kumar inaugurating the first cheese plant of eastern India at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district.

 

  

 Cheese plant of at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district

The CM also laid the foundation stone of a processing unit of the capacity to produce 30 tonne milk powder and diary plant having capacity of 5 lakh litres. 

It is estimated that the inaugurated plant will manufacture approximately one million tonne of cheese, two million tonne of paneer, 1.6 million tonne of pedas, six million tonnes of mishti doi and lassi, and 5,000 bottles of flavoured milk per day. The products would also be distributed in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Milk production in Rohtas district (of which Dehri-on-Sone is one of the three sub-divisions) is estimated to be approximately 6.48 lakh litre per day, of which about 3.36 lakh litre is surplus milk, which is further processed into cheese, milk powder, lassi and other dairy products in the plant.

The objective of setting up the project is not only to facilitate the utilisation of the surplus milk, but also to provide employment (and an additional income) to farmers from Rohtas and the neighbouring districts. As of now, the Bihar State Milk Cooperative Federation Ltd (COMFED) has invested approximately Rs 20, 45, 11, 396.60 in the project.

 The CM assured the managing director, Compfed, that the state government will provide additional amount spent on the cheese plant by Compfed. Of the Rs 1,995 lakh spent on the unit, the state government has contributed 90 per cent. But, Compfed had to spend more on the plant's establishment.

The CM said the collection of the milk had increased to 18 lakh litre per day from 4.50 lakh in the last seven years in the state. He said Bihar was the first state in the country which has an exclusive agriculture cabinet. He said that for proper marketing of agriculture-related products, the state government had made provision for all-weather road for every village having population of at least 250 persons.

Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said due to the wrong policy of the central government, the farmers of the state evinced little interest in agricultural loan from banks as the interest rate on agriculture loan was more than that of vehicle loan.

 He said that after the completion of the milk powder processing plant in the next three years, milk will not be sent to other states, which after preparing powder, sent it back to Bihar for marketing.













source:TNN