LUCKNOW: Lending a fresh boost to women entrepreneurship, the state government has decided to set up a dairy value chain project covering 700 villages of east UP districts, including Ballia, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Chandauli and Sonbhadra.
The project, which seeks to engage as many as 35,000 women farmers, comes close on the heels of Balinee Milk Produce Company -- a dairy value chain development project under the UP state rural livelihood mission (UPSRLM) – that covered over 600 villages in Bundelkhand region.
Confirming the development, mission director, UPSRLM, Sujit Kumar said that the project could potentially mobilise women and connect them to various initiatives to become economically sustainable. “Women are taking up various economic activities including individual enterprises,” he told TOI.
The Balinee company, which has, so far, mobilised over 24,000 women, has supplied 189 lakh kgs of milk till March 2021. Rural development department data show that the peak volume of milk in case of Balinee has to be more than 82,500 Kgs. “A total of Rs 70.86 crore has been paid to the milk producers in the form of milk payment till January 2021 which is about 88% of the company’s turnover,” Kumar said.
The rural development department has been seeking to step up women entrepreneurship through various projects under UPSRLM. Kumar said that the department managed to train more than 60,000 women in stitching and were provided work during manufacture of face masks (in the wake of corona pandemic) and school dresses. Further, a special proposal to work on Zari Zardozi has been taken up in Budaun district. “This project is being implemented with an objective of increasing family income of artisans in the district through better price realisation of their products,” he said.
Likewise, the department took up the case of Tharu artisans cluster in Lakhimpur and provided them better market linkages and value chain interventions.