The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DAHD&F), GoI launched a pilot scheme titled “Venture Capital Scheme for Dairy and Poultry” in the year 2005-06. The main objective of the scheme was to extend assistance for setting up small dairy farms and other components to bring structural changes in the dairy sector.
During a mid-term evaluation of the scheme, certain recommendations were made to accelerate the pace of implementation of the scheme. Taking into account the recommendations of the evaluation study and the representations received from various quarters including the farmers, State Governments and banks, DAHD&F decided to make some key changes to the scheme, including changing its name to Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (DEDS).The revised scheme has come into operation with effect from 1 September 2010.
Objectives of the scheme
To promote setting up of modern dairy farms for production of clean milk
To encourage heifer calf rearing, thereby conserving good breeding stock
To bring structural changes in the unorganised sector so that initial processing of milk can be taken up at the village level itself
To upgrade the quality and traditional technology to handle milk on a commercial scale
To generate self-employment and provide infrastructure mainly for unorganised sector
Who can benefit from this scheme?
Farmers, individual entrepreneurs, NGOs, companies, groups of organised and unorganised sectors, etc. Groups of organised sector include Self-help Groups (SHGs), dairy cooperative societies, milk unions, milk federations, etc.
An individual will be eligible to avail assistance for all the components under the scheme but only once for each component
More than one member of a family can be assisted under the scheme provided they set up separate units with separate infrastructure at different locations. The distance between the boundaries of two such farms should be at least 500 metres.
