AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

DAIRY CONDITIONS

The Milk Production-cum-feeding Scheme at Ahmadnagar came into existence on 15th April 1969. Prior to this scheme the Ahmadnagar Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh Ltd. looked after the activities concerning the supply of milk. The Government of Maharashtra purchased the machinery owned by the Sangh and the building in which the office was housed on 28th October 1969. The actual work of collecting milk under the scheme was started on 6th November 1969.

The district possesses four distinct breeds of buffaloes, viz., Gaorani, Mehsana, Murrah and Pandharpuri. Of these, Gaorani is the most common. There are about 88,116 cows and 20,081 buffaloes in milk in the district. The average yield per day per cow during lactation period of 200 days works to about one litre and that in case of a buffalo for a lactation period of 300 days to 2.5 litres. There are nine Government milk collection centres in the district as detailed below: —

Ten co-operative dairy societies, one panjarpol society in Ahmadnagar taluka and some individual milk-producers supply milk to the ex-central dairy, Ahmadnagar. On each Government milk collection centre about 250 individual milk-producers supply milk. At Kopargaon and Pravaranagar the co-operative sugar factories collect milk from about eight villages within a radius of 20 to 40 miles and supply the same to the milk scheme. At present about 3,700 litres of milk is daily collected under this scheme. Milk collected under this scheme is sent to Pune Milk Scheme in chilled condition by filling ice in the chambers of milk-cans in Government insulated vans. Thus the area of operation of the scheme is practically the whole district except Akola and Sangamner talukas which are attached to Government milk scheme at Nashik. About 12,000 litres of milk is collected from these two talukas.

Besides the activities of the milk scheme, a number of individual milk-producers within the radius of ten miles from Ahmadnagar supply about 5,000 litres of milk daily to Ahmadnagar city. About ten private dairies also supply milk to the city. The average price of milk is Rs. 1.25 per litre. The Panjarpol Sanstha also supplies about 1,000 litres of cow milk in sealed bottles daily to various customers in the city.

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