Household milch cow rearing enterprise promotes livelihood for poor.

A household milch cow women farmer collects the milk

“Household milch cow rearing enterprise promotes livelihood for poor’ said K.Devendran a small farmer of Sirugamani.Household milch cow rearing is a class of agricultural or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from milch cows. Tamil Nadu government aims to distribute milch cows among the producers at the villages by The Dairy Development department as package of livelihood promotion for rural poor and also to enhance the milk production by the milk farmers. Under the government’s free milch cow scheme, cows were distributed beneficiaries of interior villages in Trichy district for the year 2011-12. Each milch cow is worth `35,250.It has helped the beneficiaries earn an additional income of around `3,000 per month. “Each cows given to the beneficiary in Andanallur Block is giving around 10-13 11 litres of milk per day. By supplying the milk to the milk society, the beneficiaries have been able to get an additional income of `2,300 per month apart from the money spent on cattle feed. This is helping them run the family smoothly. The department has been giving cattle feed to the beneficiaries and pays them `18 per litre of milk supplied. “There is no outstanding amount on the part of the Government to be paid to beneficiaries as the Dairy Development department s paying on time and the department is also supplying cattle feed at a subsidised rate of `10.80 and educating the beneficiaries on how to improve milk production and monitoring the health of the animals once a week” said P.Vanitha, the SHG Coordinator of SEVAI, a local Trichy based NGO. The SEVAI SHGs beneficiaries of this project appreciate the initiative of District Collector of Trichy Jayashree Muralidharan, and the timely services of officials of the Dairy Development department of Trichy District.-Govin