Dairy Development in J&K (HADP Project 23)

What is HADP Project 23 on dairy development?

Dairy Development in J&K is Project 23 of the all-round Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) of the Agriculture Production Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, implemented through the Animal Husbandry Department and the Livestock Development Boards of the two divisions.

The rationale in the implementation guidelines sets out the problem in numbers. Artificial insemination coverage in Jammu and Kashmir is as low as 30 per cent, with only 3.32 lakh cows covered. The two semen stations produce 9 lakh semen straws a year against a requirement of 19 lakh if 70 per cent of females are to be covered. About 20,000 dairy animals of unknown genetics are imported from neighbouring states every year, with a flight of capital of roughly Rs 200 crore. Only 2.8 per cent of milk produced enters the organised processing sector, so farmers get poor prices, and around 1 lakh litres of private processing capacity sits under-utilised because milk collection and chilling infrastructure in the milk shed areas is weak.

Project 23 attacks all of that at once: breed improvement, local heifer production to replace imports, milk aggregation through FPOs and SHGs, and value addition.

Who is eligible for HADP Project 23?

For a satellite heifer rearing unit, you can apply if:

• You are an individual, a group of individuals, a cooperative or an FPO.
• You have sufficient land available for creation of infrastructure and for rearing the calves.
• You are able to buy 20 elite female calves aged three months and above, procured locally within the Union Territory from dairy farmers or Cattle Breeding Stations.
• You will UID tag every animal and register it on INAPH, and list the saleable stock on e-Pashu Haat.

For the milk collection component, you can apply if:

• You are an existing or new milk SHG or FPO in a milk shed area of Jammu and Kashmir, with more than 100 pourer members.
• Alternatively, you are a group of dairy farmers intending to form a milk FPO who can accumulate more than 300 litres of milk per day.
• Women FPOs and SHGs identified or aggregated by JKRLM or NDDB are prioritised.

For the value-addition component, you can apply if:

• You are an SHG or FPO planning to process milk into products such as ghee, cheese, dahi or khoa, with packaging, branding and marketing. Special focus is on Kaladi cheese and khoa, with Kaladi FPOs to be established first in Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch and Jammu.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not have sufficient land for the rearing infrastructure. This is the one explicit eligibility condition stated for the heifer unit.
• Your FPO or SHG has fewer than 100 pourer members, or your prospective group cannot accumulate 300 litres of milk a day.
• You are seeking money to buy or lease land. No incentive is provided for procuring or leasing land for BMC installation, nor for purchase or lease of land under the value addition component.
• You want to buy old machinery or a vehicle for personal use, both are expressly excluded from the value-addition incentive.
• You expect an incentive for renting accommodation for the Automatic Milk Collection Unit. FPOs and SHGs may rent premises, but no incentive is given for the rent.

How much does HADP Project 23 pay?

The milk recording incentive works on a simple rule: a maximum of two dairy cows per farmer may be put to recording, each animal needs 13 recorded transactions a year, and the 1,200 best-performing animal owners are selected annually for the productivity enhancement incentive.

What else does Project 23 fund institutionally?

Beyond individual and group incentives, the project strengthens two semen stations to the Central Monitoring Unit's standards with 20 additional high-genetic-merit bulls each; ties up with Genus ABS India or Sexing Technologies India for sexed semen, with each station producing about 4.5 lakh doses; establishes 30 breed multiplication farms of 200 cows or 120 farms of 50 cows in the private sector under Rashtriya Gokul Mission; sets up a MOET-IVF laboratory at MLRI Manasbal at a cost of Rs 10 crore with 100 imported elite Jersey donor cows; and creates a Murrah buffalo breeding farm at Poni Check, Rajouri with 200 elite Murrah buffaloes.

Milk chilling capacity is to be raised by 2.5 lakh litres, taking organised sector marketing past 8.5 lakh litres per day over five years, and lifting the share of milk processed from 2.8 per cent to 7 per cent.

What documents are required?

How to apply for HADP Project 23

1. Register on the HADP Kisan Sathi portal at hadp.jk.gov.in with your Aadhaar and mobile number, and open the Project 23 scheme page for the component you want.
2. Submit your application to the Chief Animal Husbandry Officer of your district, attaching the land record, Aadhaar, bank passbook and, for group components — the FPO, SHG or cooperative registration certificate showing the pourer membership.
3. Get the site inspected. Departmental officers verify land availability, shed space, water and fodder access before sanction.
4. Procure the animals or equipment after sanction. Female calves must be bought locally within Jammu and Kashmir from dairy farmers or Cattle Breeding Stations, and all inducted animals must be UID tagged and registered on INAPH.
5. Call for physical verification with the invoices. Release of incentive is only through DBT to your bank account.
6. List your saleable stock on e-Pashu Haat once the heifers are ready for sale, which is a condition attached to the rearing units.

If you take a bank loan to establish a unit, the Chief Animal Husbandry Officer forwards the approved estimate and a copy of your application to the bank; the bank sanctions under RBI guidelines, and the subsidy is processed after the NOC comes back.

How to check status and why applications fail

The district Chief Animal Husbandry Officer's office holds the application register and the beneficiary list, which the Directorate is required to publish on the Animal Husbandry Department website. Applications on the Kisan Sathi portal carry a tracking number.

Common reasons for rejection:

• Insufficient land for the shed and rearing space.
• Calves bought outside Jammu and Kashmir, which breaches the local procurement condition.
• Animals not UID tagged or not registered on INAPH, which blocks verification.
• FPO or SHG below the 100 pourer member threshold.
• Claims for land purchase, land lease, rent, old machinery or a personal vehicle, all of which are excluded.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, which stops the DBT release.
• District target exhausted for the year, the heifer component is capped at 400 units and the value-addition component at 100 start-ups for the whole UT.

Help and grievance redressal

• Chief Animal Husbandry Officer of your district, the first point of contact
• Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Jammu and Kashmir, for appeals and beneficiary list queries
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Jammu: 0191-2505201, email devagri-jk@jk.gov.in
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Kashmir: 0194-2310265
• HADP portal: hadp.jk.gov.in, including the grievance section
• Daksh Kisan: dakshkisan.jk.gov.in for free dairy and livestock training

All incentives under Project 23 are released only through DBT, so no cash payment to any officer or agent is ever required.