Dairy farmers, who have been seeking a hike in procurement prices, have urged Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to announce an increase in subsidy for concentrate cattle feed.
“Since most of the cows in the State are cross-bred with jersey cattle, they need this feed and farmers are unable to buy it as it is costly. This leads to the quantity of fat and solids non-fat (SNF) reducing in the milk. If the correct quantity of feed is given to the cows, they will be able to increase milk production and the milk will have the requisite quantum of fat and SNF,” said M.G. Rajendran, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Welfare Association. “If we get an audience with the Chief Minister, I am sure he will understand our problems and provide fully subsidised feed,” he added.
In their most recent petition to the government, dairy farmers said they were incurring a loss of about ₹15 per litre. “We want ₹55 per litre for cow milk and ₹68 per litre for buffalo milk. At present, we are being paid only ₹35 per litre of cow milk and ₹44 per litre of buffalo milk. Many farmers have shifted to private dairies as they pay anywhere between ₹8 to ₹10 per litre additionally,” said A.M. Selvaraj, a farmer from Salem district.
A milk industry expert said that over the last two years, many dairy farmers had moved to the private sector. “This led to Aavin getting only around 30 lakh litres of milk a day, which is hardly enough. Unless Aavin increases its procurement price, more farmers will move to the private sector and this will affect the cooperative milk system in the State...The government can step in and provide subsidy for the feed or ₹10 more per litre,” he said.
Minister for Dairy Development Mano Thangaraj on Tuesday said there was no move to increase Aavin milk prices. In the last three months, 295 new primary milk cooperative societies had been started. The sale of milk-based products had increased, compared with last year, he said.
