DHAKA: PRAN Dairy Limited and Land O’ Lakes Inc. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance Bangladesh’s dairy at the PRAN-RFL Group corporate headquarters last week.

Under this project, Land O’ Lakes and PRAN Dairy will jointly invest six million US-dollars to increase dairy farmers’ milk production in Khulna and Rajshahi Divisions, said a pressrelease.

PRAN-RFL Group’s Director of Corporate Finance Uzma Chowdhury, and Land O’Lakes Bangladesh Dairy Enhancement Project Chief of Party Geoff Walker signed the agreement on behalf of their organizations, at the event which was attended by Director of PRAN Group Elias Mridha and PRAN Dairy Chief of Dairy Extension Dr Rakibur Rahman among other officials.

Bangladesh Dairy Enhancement Project, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food for Progress initiative, is one of several similar initiatives aimed at enhancing the dairy sector in Bangladesh.

It aims to reach out to 17,000 rural farmers through value addition to the milk supply chain. “In this way, the project will substantially increase food producers` incomes and provide farmers with the technical assistance they need to grow and develop in the future”, said Geoff Walker, Chief of Party for Land O’Lakes Bangladesh Dairy Enhancement Project.            

The project will be implemented in two districts covering about 60 villages through 40 Village Milk Collection Centres. PRAN has put in place plans to expand the project across the country, to address the scarcity of quality milk supply. “Once implemented, the project will link approximately 7,000 dairy farmers to the mainstream milk market”, said Anisur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer of PRAN Dairy Limited.

PRAN-RFL Group and Land O’ Lakes International Development Division have previously collaborated on USDA-funded development projects.

These include the Bangladesh School Nutrition Program, which played a formative role in strengthening food systems and safety by working with processors to begin aseptically packaging the country’s first UHT milk products, and nutritionally fortifying biscuits with iron and other vitamins, and the Bangladesh Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement Pilot Project, which supported the local production of high-protein cereal bars again to support nutrition in schools.

BDST: 1730 HRS, APR 06, 2014