Aavin urged to increase milk procurement price

Members of Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Association staged a protest here on Monday pressing for Aavin to increase the milk procurement price.

The protest was led by the association district president, A. Kumarandi, where Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam office-bearers, V. Murugan and A. Vijayamurugan, spoke.

Mr. Kumarandi said that the prices of cattle fodder like groundnut cake and rice and wheat bran had increased by at least 30%.

“The groundnut cake which was ₹ 40 a kg has increased to ₹ 68 a kg after implementation of GST. Similarly, the price of bran has increased to ₹ 30 from ₹ 20 in the last few months. With each cow to be fed these dry fodder worth over ₹ 200 day and also green fodder, the procurement price of ₹ 30 to ₹ 32 a litre of cow milk is not commensurating with the input cost,” he added.

Besides, other maintenance of the animals and cow sheds required round-the-clock attention.

“A farmer cannot manage to run the family with the meagre margin. How can we provide education to our children,” he asked.

The association sought increase of ₹ 10 per litre procurement price for milch animal farmers.

Other demands were to ensure that the ₹ 12,000 annual incentive per milch animal by Aavin should reach without fail to the farmers.

The association also sought transparency in quality and quantity of milk at the spot of procurement.

“In some places, the quality and quantity of milk procured are told to the farmer after it is taken on vehicles,” he complained.

All the fodder units of Aavin should be made fully operational and fodder should be given to farmers with 50% subsidy.

The infrastructure of Aavin should be improved to ensure increase daily procurement to one crore litres.

Published - November 18, 2024 09:06 pm IST