Minister urges Telangana farmers to join dairy cooperatives

Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy has urged farmers and women in Telangana to form cooperative societies and participate in the Centre’s White Revolution 2.0 programme. He spoke on Sunday at the foundation-laying ceremony for a ₹400-crore Amul dairy processing plant at Toopran in Medak district.

Reddy said Telangana had been identified for the formation of 1,525 new cooperative societies under the Centre’s expansion programme. The minister said women’s groups could access bank loans of up to ₹20 lakh for livestock rearing and dairy activities. He argued that cooperative structures could raise milk production, create employment and improve rural incomes.

Reddy said the Centre had set a national target of establishing 75,000 new dairy cooperative societies by 2029. He also said India was the world’s largest milk producer, accounting for nearly one-fourth of global milk output. The new plant is expected to be completed within 18 months.

According to Reddy, it will procure milk from local farmers and produce milk, curd, buttermilk, lassi, paneer, ice cream and ghee. He said processing and branding could improve farmers’ returns and reduce dependence on intermediaries. Reddy cited Amul and Sabar Dairy in Gujarat as examples of the potential of dairy cooperatives.

He said Sabar Dairy had grown from 19 societies and daily collection of 5,100 litres in 1964 to a cooperative involving about 50,000 producers and processing nearly 50 lakh litres a day. The minister also said Sabar Dairy recorded turnover of about ₹10,500 crore in 2025-26. Telangana ministers D.

Sridhar Babu and Vivek Venkatswamy, along with Medak MP M. Raghunandan Rao, attended the event.