TIRUCHY: In order to increase milk production, the state government has been distributing milch cows to over 2 lakh beneficiaries and is in the process of solving issues related to milk procurement price, said Dairy Development Minister T Mano Thangaraj here on Wednesday.

After inspecting the Aavin unit in Tiruchy and distributing welfare assistance to milk producers in the district, Minister Mano Thangaraj said, the state government is more concerned about increasing the milk production, as there is a growing demand for the milk products across the state.

He said that the state-run Aavin has several lakhs of farmers involved in milk production, over 35,000 employees and several crores of customers. “The Aavin units have been running with two purposes – decent pricing for the milk producers and quality milk distribution to the consumers with nominal price and we have no compromise on this,” he stressed.

Stating that the state government has been initiating several steps to strengthen Aavin units, the Minister said, there is a growing need for milk and milk products across the state and so the increase in milk production is inevitable and the government has been initiating steps to distribute over two lakh milch cows and adequate loans to the milk producers.

“At present, the Aavin can handle 45 lakh litre per day and this has been planned to increase to 70 lakh litres per day,” he said.

Mano Thangaraj said that Aavin is known for providing a stable procurement price, which is not possible with the private firms. “Since the farmers have demanded to increase the procurement price due to the increase in production cost, the state government has been initiating steps to increase the procurement price,” he added.

Earlier, the Minister disbursed welfare assistances worth Rs 4.24 crore to as many as 73 beneficiaries. District Collector M Pradeep Kumar, Tiruchy MP Su Thirunavukkarasar, Aavin Managing Director Vineeth and others were present.