Farmers in fix with pvt dairies dictating terms

Tirupati: Dairy farmers contributing around 25 lakh litres of milk in Chittoor district and are expected to increase the milk production to 40 lakh litres by 2021 were at the receiving end with the private diaries dictating terms.

Highlights:

• Closure of a dairy unit run by farmers’ cooperatives in Chittoor comes as a blessing in disguise for private dairies
• The private diaries cartel has reduced the procurement price by Rs 3 almost a year back and recently increased it by Rs 1

Closure of a dairy unit run by farmers’ cooperatives in Chittoor comes as a blessing in disguise for private dairies. The private dairies are accused of forming into a cartel and slashing milk prices according to their will. Dairy farmers, as a result were denied of supportive prices in the wake of increasing feed cost.

Chittoor district is having more than three lakh dairy farmers. They relied completely on dairy farming. In the absence of farmers’ cooperative dairy, they were left with no choice but to supply the milk to private dairies. The managements of these dairies often make a single voice to make the dairy farmers dance to their tunes. Though they are selling toned milk at the rate of Rs 42-45 per litre to public, the farmers get only Rs 21-26 per litre.

A farmer Kesava Reddy in Tirupati rural said that the price depends on the fat percentage in milk and it never meets the cost of production making them left with huge losses.

Leader of AP farmers associations Mangati Gopal Reddy said that in every 10 litres milk one kg fat will come which costs Rs 250. Hence, by selling this fat itself the dairies earn money they spent for procurement of 10 litres milk. By extracting the fat, almost three litres milk will get reduced. They mix them with milk without fat is removed and call it as toned milk.

In other words, they are getting milk at free of cost from farmers and selling at Rs 42-45 in the market. They sell the double toned milk and pure milk even AT higher prices.

According to an estimate, to produce 4-5 litres of milk on an average Rs 180 will be spent. In this fodder, dry grass is Rs 30 per 5 kg and green grass Rs 15 per 10 kg. Fodder costs Rs 120 per 4 kg. Other expenditure like medicines will take it to Rs 180. However, the fodder cost varies from Rs 15 to Rs 30 per kg depending on the quality.

Digested crude protein fodder which is having nutritional values costs more. The private diaries cartel has reduced the procurement price by Rs 3 almost a year back and recently increased it by Rs 1.

There are more than 40 dairies in Chittoor district. Krishna Rao who is running a Gosala in Tiruchanoor with more than 500 cattle, said that every dairy must pay a cess of three paise per litre to the government. For the last 15 years they were not paying it. Now with pending dues all the dairies together must pay the government around Rs 30 crore towards cess.

Neither the dairies nor the government cares this. If this amount is paid, it can be spent on the welfare of dairy farmers. In Goa, the cess is seven paise per litre and the government there is using the amount to increase the livestock. He said the dairies procure almost 20 lakh litres of milk daily and another 4-5 lakh litres is being supplied directly to households and for other uses.

It was learnt that a dairy with a capacity of 10,000 to 25,000 litres procurement capacity may earn Rs 70,000 net profit on an average per day. The dairy farmers on the other hand were leading miserable lives. Since, no government is showing any concern on this issue, private dairies were flourishing day-by-day at the cost of poor farmers.

By V Pradeep Kumar