Dairy farmers and activists joined together to protest at Pongalur near here on Friday to express their displeasures over certain milk procurement procedures followed by the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited and also against the planned move to buy milk from Andhra Pradesh.
Procurement
The farmers complained that since only certain quantity of milk was procured by Aavin, it had resulted in farmers getting lesser prices when selling the remaining quantity to the private companies.
Demand
“Our demand is that Aavin should procure whatever the quantity of milk produced without putting any caps on the procurement quantity. Due to the ceiling, the private players are using it as an opportunity to lower the support prices,” said T. Gopal, a cattle farmer, who was among those led the agitation.
The farmers also alleged irregularities in the procurement of milk from the farmers.
Transparency
“To ensure transparency, the Aavin should calculate the purity of milk at the cooperative society level itself instead of doing the same at the chilling plant. This will enable the farmers to know the exact reason for rejection,” they said.
Mr. Gopal said the move to procure milk from Andhra Pradesh should be discouraged. “Enough milk is produced from here and Aavin should procure the entire quantity,” he added.
‘The move to procure milk from Andhra Pradesh should be discouraged’
