Farmers stage protest in Erode demanding hike in milk procurement price

Urging the State government to increase the procurement price of milk by ₹10 per litre, farmers poured milk on the road and staged a road roko at Rayapalayam, near Nasiyanur, here on Friday.

The farmers said the price of fodder had gone up significantly over the years. They demanded ₹42 per litre for cow milk and ₹51 per litre for buffalo milk. Minister for Dairy Development S.M. Nasar held talks with various milk producers associations in Chennai on Thursday that failed to yield any results. Hence, the associations announced that they would stop supplying milk to the cooperative societies across the State from Friday.

There are 513 milk producers’ cooperative societies in the district where an average of 1.80 lakh litres of milk is procured from farmers every day and sent to the Erode District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Aavin) at Chithode. Except for one society at Rayapalayam, where farmers refused to supply milk, other societies received milk as usual.

Members of Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Welfare Association, led by its treasurer and Erode district president Ramasamy, along with a few farmers and cattle gathered on Nasiyanur Road and staged a protest. They raised slogans demanding a hike in procurement price of milk and also supply of fodder at 50% subsidy.

Addressing the media, Mr. Ramasamy said supply of milk to Aavin would be reduced in a phased manner in the coming days and would be stopped completely. He wanted the government to fulfil their genuine demands so that consumers were not affected.

Vehicle movement was affected for 30 minutes and normalcy returned after the protest was withdrawn.