Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said the project was started with an MoU signed between Amul and the state government on July 21 to give a fillip to the empowerment of women self help groups by encouraging the milk cooperatives in the government sector. The AP Amul Palavelluva Projet was started on December 2 and milk has been being collected in 400 villages in Chittoor, YSR Kadapa and Prakasam districts. He said the AP Amul Project will start in Guntur and milk will be collected from 129 villages in the district and also in174 villages in Chittoor district from today.

He said the women in 400 villages are getting Rs 5-7 more than the existing price per litre and added that milk is being collected in some villages of his own Pulivendula constituency. The Chief Minister said Amul has been paying a remunerative price in the market as it stands eighth in the IFCN's rankings and its cooperative unit and the stakeholders are dairy farmers across the state. He said Amul, which is a cooperative movement, pays more than the existing price per litre and the profit earned would be distributed among the stakeholders every six months.

The Chief Minister said Amul products have been getting remunerative prices as the highest level of processing of milk is being conducted in Amul and chocolates and ice creams are produced as the processed foods and are being exported to foreign countries. He said 41,44,000 litres of milk was collected from 10,871 women dairy farmers in 400 villages of Chittoor, Kadapa and Prakasam districts from December 2 and Rs 18.46 crore has been paid and added that Amul has paid Rs 3.52crore more than the existing price benefiting women dairy farmers.

The Chief Minister said to strengthen Amul and benefit women dairy farmers, through AP-Amul project, 9899 villages across the State will be brought under milk production, where Bulk Milk Cooling Units (BMCU) and Automatic Milk Collection Units (AMCU) will be set up with an expenditure of Rs 4000 Crore. The Chief Minister said quality animal feed will be supplied to Dairy farmers through Rytu Bharosa Kendras in coming days.

The Chief Minister said he is committed to the empowerment of women and listed out the women-oriented welfare schemes and programmes in being implemented in the state.

Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Dr Seediri Appalaraju, Agriculture Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, APDDCF MD A. Babu were present on the occasion. GCMMF (Amul) MD RS Sodhi, Sabarkanta Co-operative Society MD Dr B M Patel, Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha, MLA Vidadala Rajani and a large number of women dairy farmers from various villages participated through video conference.

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