Kerala Govt to develop hi-tech dairy farm

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government is establishing a high-tech dairy farm at Kulathupuzha in Pathanamthitta district as part of efforts to attain self-sufficiency in milk production.

The Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Animal Husbandry, Mr C. Divakaran, said that the farm would be the first of its kind under a State Government in the country. Estimated to cost Rs 5 crore, it would have all the modern facilities, including technology from European countries.

The farm, being implemented under the National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding (NPCBB) of the Centre, will have the facility to keep 200 high-yield cows, producing 1.40 lakh litres of milk annually.

The cows in the farm will have radio-active transponders around their necks and all the details about the individual cows will be inscribed on the micro-chips in the transponders. This will facilitate computerised feeding of the cows. Besides, the sheds where the cattle are housed will feature devices for temperature control.

The Minister said that the Government had decided to introduce a Vidharbha model project for distributing high-yield cows to eligible people in the State at an estimated cost of Rs 41 crore.

Also, it would distribute 20,000 calves and 2,000 buffaloes as part the calf-rearing project.

He said that the Government had decided to introduce a permanent system for making payments to workers in the milk cooperative societies in the State. This was a 25-year-long demand and around 15,000 workers would benefit from the system, he added.