A months-old dairy project has revived fortunes of tribals in four clusters of Malkangiri district, Odisha.
One hundred tribal women have each been given a cross-bred Jersey cow and fodder for two months by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), in association with Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd.
Purnima is very happy with her cow and the milk income it brings her. “We earn over Rs 12,000 every month consistently,” she says. “Our income from paddy and millet cultivation was meagre and erratic.”
Twenty-five Bhumia, Koya, Santhali and Banjara tribals comprise each cluster — three in Malkangiri Block and one in Mathili Block.
The individual investment amounts to approximately Rs 40,000, as the cows are an expensive breed, costing upwards of Rs 35,000.
The women, though, already seem to have made a success of it. Milk production is providing them with a steady and high income, unlike farming.
“We earn over Rs 12,000 every month consistently,” says Purnima happily. She is a member of the Sonai Cluster in Mathili. “Earlier, our income from paddy and millet cultivation was meagre and erratic.”
The cluster members cannot wait to expand their dairies and are looking forward to more support from ITDA.
Meanwhile, the agency has another plan in the pipeline, this time in partnership with the animal husbandry department.
“We have selected 25 sites for setting up artificial ponds to grow Azolla pinnata, a type of aquatic fern that is used as cattle feed,” says Rajendra Nag, ITDA project manager in Malkangiri. (Azolla is also known by the common names mosquito fern or fairy moss.)
“We have also zeroed in on growing fodder grass Hybrid Napier over 10 acres,” he adds. This is a hybrid between Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and bajra (Pennisetum typhoides). Also known as elephant grass, it has a high nutritive value and is economically productive.
