NDDB plans to double Odisha farmers’ income

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on Friday announced that it would expand its programme to inculcate good farming practices through the Mother Dairy’s Safal in order to increase farmers’ income by connecting them to national markets.

The Safal, the horticulture brand of the Mother Dairy, would double its farmer outreach to 2,000 farmers for procuring fruits and vegetables in seven districts of the State. Farmers would be given ‘fair value’ for their produce.

The NDDB has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for giving land in Bhubaneswar for Safal to set up a central distribution facility for collecting and marketing the farm produce in the most scientific and hygienic method to get the best price for farmers, informed NDDB Chairman Dilip Rath.

“The Mother Dairy has set up a food processing plant in Jharkhand. It will also soon set up a milk processing plant,” he said and informed that the national capital would get to taste the sweet mangoes from Odisha in a big way with enhanced operations by Safal.

Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Pvt Ltd Director Dr Saugata Mitra said, “The Safal has planned to double the procurement of mangoes from Odisha this season to 150 tonne.”

The Safal also procures watermelon, brinjal, cucumber, okra, karela, onion, cabbage, leafy vegetables from districts of Mayurbhanj, Dhenkenal, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Deogarh.