APO demo project on Productivity and Food Safety Management ends

GANGTOK, 16 Mar: The closing workshop of Asian Productivity Organization [APO] demonstration project on productivity and food safety management in the Sikkim Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited organised by the Sikkim Milk Union was held at Chintan Bhawan today.
Addressing the gathering, the chief guest Minister for Cooperation, RB Subba stated that it was a matter of prestige for the State to be chosen by APO for the project from all the North Eastern states and added that the experts have done all the hard work in the past one and a half years on the project and it was now time for us to put them into effect.
The experts have shown that Sikkim has the potential and to make this a reality we all need to work together and to do this there is a need for coordination and cooperation amongst all the people involved, he said and added that above all there was a need to bring awareness amongst the farmers to produce quality milk, while the department needs to work at the ground level to increase productivity.
Stating that this was the scientific age, the Minister said that it is time now for us to make use of technology and that there was a need to bring awareness amongst the employees and workers of the Sikkim Milk Union, too.
Earlier, the gathering was also addressed along with a power-point presentation by Pieter Willem de Jongh [international consultant from Netherlands] and Dr. P Senthil Kumar [Managing Director, Sikkim Milk Union]. A brief outline on objective of the project was presented by KD Bharadwaj [senior project officer, APO, Japan].
During his power-point presentation, the MD [SMU] Dr. P Senthil Kumar informed that the project was started in September 2010 and has taken one and a half years to be implemented. This was not the closing but just the beginning of the work for the employees and workers of SMU, he expressed.
He also presented the outcome of the project and future course of action to be taken by SMU in the days to come, while the chief resource person, Pieter Willem stated that much had been achieved in the past one year by SMU, but there was still a long way to go.
The workshop was attended by the Board of Directors, Sikkim Milk Union, Secretary Cooperative Department, Chairman SMU, officials from the Animal Husbandry, Cooperative departments, officials of Sikkim Milk Union and members representing various public sector units.