The State government has announced enhancement of milk procurement price to dairy farmers supplying milk to Vijaya Dairy (Telangana State Dairy Development Cooperative Federation – TSDDCF) effective from September 1.
Increase in the procurement price of buffalo milk would be ₹2.71 per litre, from the existing ₹46.69 per litre to ₹49.40 per litre, and that of cow milk would be ₹5 a litre, from ₹33.75 per litres to ₹38.75 per litre.
The announcement on the enhancement of milk procurement price was made by Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Talasani Srinivas Yadav at a meeting with the reporesentatives of milk producers cooperative unions and dairy farmers held at the Cooperative Management Institute held here on Monday.
The meeting was held to scale up milk procurement by addressing the problems and concerns of dairy farmers. Against the requirement of about 3.5 lakh litres of milk every day, the procurement in the State by Vijaya Dairy was only about 2.5 lakh litres a day and the remaining quantity was being purchased from neighbouring Karnataka.
Several dairy farmers raised the issue of inordinate delay in the payment of incentive of ₹4 per litre for supplying milk to Vijaya Dairy as also the subsidy of ₹10,000 per farmers on purchase of cattle.
The Minister has also announced increase in the management cost of bulk milk cooling units (BMCUs) from 25 paise per litre to ₹2 a litre during the rainy and winter season and from 50 paise per litre to ₹2.25 per litre during the summer season.
Special Chief Secretary (AH) and in-charge Managing Director of TSDDCF Adhar Sinha, Director of AH S. Ramchander, Telangana State Live Stock Development Agency CEO Manjuvani, dairy farmers and representative of milk producer unions from several districts participated in the meeting.
The Minister explained that with a view to encourage dairy development in the State, the State government was providing cattle with 75% subsidy to SC and ST farmers and with 50% subsidy to other farmers. Besides, ₹4 a litre incentive was also being given to farmers supplying milk for subsidised fodder and feed.
He explained to the farmers that profits of TSDDCF would in turn be shared with milk supplying farmers in different forms and supply of milk to Vijaya Diary would help both the organisation and the farmers. He also appealed to farmers not to fall into the trap of private dairies.
It was decided that committees at district and State level would be formed to resolve problems of dairy farmers from time to time by meeting at least once every three months.
