It is easily the worst of droughts that most parts of Telangana have seen in four decades and acute deficit of rainfall for the third consecutive year only compounds their problem. With a significant decline in production of foodgrain and fodder, the life of dairy farmers and cattle has become miserable.
A sudden spurt in sale of cattle since this February in the 11 animal fairs at Kalwakurthy, Kourampet, Telkapally, Bijinepally, Kosgi, Devarakadra and Pebbair of Mahabubnagar, Malland and Ibrahimpatnam of Ranga Reddy, and Kondamadugu and Choutuppal of Nalgonda district, holds a mirror to the severity of conditions. Including these districts, dairy farmers in Medak are said to have sold away between 25 to 60 per cent of their cattle.
A majority portion of the 29{+t}{+h}State of the Indian Republic falls in the Deccan plateau where annual rainfall is between 40 and 104 cm between Mahabubnagar and Adilabad. In the 21 years since 1995, Telangana has seen drought in at least 15 of them. Farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to feed their animals considering the spiralling cost of feed and fodder, including the non-availability of the fodder.
“We have visited most of the drought-affected parts of the State and are appalled at the pathetic state of affairs,” says Kandala Bal Reddy, a former Forest Department officer and a progressive dairy farmer himself, post-retirement, and now general secretary of the Progressive Dairy Farmers Association, Telangana.
Poser to Vijaya Dairy
Mr. Bal Reddy and association president Dr. M. Jitendar Reddy alleged that crores of rupees meant for dairy farmers was rotting in the accounts of Vijaya Dairy. They also cry hoarse about the performance of the State-owned Vijaya Dairy that owes four months’ arrears to dairy farmers, pertaining to government’s incentive of Rs. 4 per litre of milk procured.
Official reaction
When contacted, Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh State Dairy Development Corporation that procures milk, handles the processing and sells milk products on the Vijaya Dairy brand, Nirmala, said the arrears had piled up because they had taken a conscious decision to release the incentive directly through the bank accounts of small and medium farmers.
“This decision of ours has caused a problem with some farmers either having bank accounts that were now ‘inoperative’ or with the farmers themselves not giving us the particulars for fear that bankers would ‘adjust’ the incentive on crop loans they had taken earlier but not repaid. Also, Dairy Cooperative Societies have advanced money to their members and want it back. We will sort out the issue very soon,” Ms. Nirmala assured. What is urgently needed is to urgently improve the performance of Vijaya Dairy by bringing about a change among officials. Also, elections to the Dairy Development Cooperative Federation have not taken place for the past decade-and-a-half, say Mr. Bal Reddy and Dr. Jitendar Reddy. Officers of the rank of Principal Secretary being nominated as Federation Chairman, year after year, when in fact it should have dairy farmers in that position, they rue. “When Vijaya is struggling to procure 3 lakh litres of milk a day from farmers in Telangana, Amul of Gujarat is managing to buy a whopping 150 lakh litres, while Nandini of Karnataka manages about 70 lakh,” said Mr. Bal Reddy.
No elections to Dairy Development Cooperative Federation for the past decade-and-a-half
