The Progressive Dairy Farmers’ Association of Telangana has complimented Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the decisions taken by the Cabinet to pay an incentive to dairy farmers, but suggested reforms to develop the government-owned Vijaya Dairy.
In a release, the Association led by its president M. Jitender Reddy, general secretary Kandala Bal Reddy and vice-president G. Ram Reddy said Vijaya Dairy was badly neglected by successive governments since 1995. The root cause for failure of milk procurement by Vijaya Dairy was establishment of Heritage by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s family.
Middlemen and agents in procurement of milk should be eliminated immediately or else the incentive will not reach farmers. Steps should be taken to procure at least ten lakh litres of milk and five lakh litres of powder for the dairy to enable it to compete with private processors like Heritage and Tirumala.
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The Association urged the government to strengthen milk cooperatives at village and State level on the lines of Amul in Gujarat and Nandini Dairy in Karnataka. It sought free power to dairy farms as their number was .01 per cent compared to agriculture pump sets.
Dairy loans at four per cent interest and subsidy of 25 per cent on animal feed was also demanded.