Cow’s milk a panacea

Source: TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2003 01:19:13 AM ]

LUCKNOW: Suffering from diabetes, cholesterol or high blood pressure? Try cow milk. The conjugated linolic acid (CLA), found specially in the milk of the humped variety, could be just the answer to your problem.
This ‘health funda’ forms the core of advertising blitzkrieg planned by the UP government for the promotion of cow milk.
And for a refreshing change, emphasis this time is on jacking up the sale charts by using scientific backup rather than giving it a pseudo religious push, as the government officials mull over research papers and medical bulletins to come up with the right sale strategy.
Launched by the Uttar Pradesh Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation (UPPCDF), the ambitious project aims at marketing Parag Go Ras (cow milk) as well as ghee in 14 districts from March.
The UPPCDF had already charted out milk routes, covering Lucknow, Agra, Varansi, Bara Banki, Sultanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar and other areas, said Veena, chief general manager (CGM) of the federation.
Attractive packages are being offered to members of the village dairy cooperative (VDC) which may include grant of loans from DRDA or banks for buying cows, free services of para vets and also free containers.
“Besides making available unadulterated cow milk to consumers, the project will also go a long way in the protection and preservation of cows and its progeny,” minister for animal husbandry Laxmikant Bajpai told Times News Network on Thursday. “We would like to sell this concept to health freaks, housewives and hospitals,” he added.
The Lucknow Milk Union supplies 250 litre milk to state ayruvedic college.”CLA which has anti-cancer properties is only found in well-tended and open grazing cows — a description which fits to our village cows to the T,” he claimed.
The milk, said Bajapi, would be available in polypack and be priced at par with buffalo milk (Rs 10 a litre). Moreover, the federation will pay milk sellers a rupee extra on the sale of every litre of cow milk.
After the market in 14 district steadies the government will try to cover the entire state. “We may even earmark eastern and Bundelkhand region under our expansion project,” Bajpai added.
This would also strengthen the milk procurement process, the CGM said. According to a door-to-door survey conducted by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in UP last year, the cow-buffalo ratio in the state was 30:70. Besides, half to three-fourth of the total milk finds its way to local markets. “This is a major concern of the PCDF,” the CGM added.