Milk producers in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts have a reason to cheer. The Board of Directors of Dakshina Kannada Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd (DKMUL) has decided to increase the base price and incentive offered to the milk producers by Rs 1.50 with effect from today.
With this, the milk producers will get a remuneration of Rs 31 per litre milk (excluding Rs 4 subsidy from the government) that is sold to the co-operative societies. The DKMUL has revised the base price by 50 paise and made it Rs 25 now. The incentive or the support price offered to the milk producers which was Re 1 earlier, has been hiked and made Rs two per litre now. All in all, the dairy farmers who used to get Rs 25.50 per litre of milk, will get Rs 27 including the base price and incentive, and a subsidy of Rs four from the government, DKMUL President Raviraj Hegde said.
Addressing mediapersons on Thursday, Hegde said that the Board has also decided to increase the remuneration offered to the co-operative society staff by 20 paise per litre. The DKMUL will spend an additional Rs 1.5 crore due to increasing the price offered to milk producers, in next two months. DKMUL bags the credit of offering highest remuneration to per litre milk produced by dairy farmers, when compared to other co-operative milk unions in the State. With the price revision, the difference between the price of milk sold and purchased will be reduced, he said.
Vaccination drive
The DKMUL is assisting the Animal Husbandry Department in carrying out vaccination drive to prevent foot and mouth disease among the cattle in DK and Udupi districts. Vaccination drive was started three years ago and has now entered the sixth phase. Under the sixth phase, vaccination drive began on February 15 and will continue till March 15. The DKMUL will bear 50 per cent of the administrative cost of the vaccination drive, Hegde said.
There has been eight to 10 cattle deaths due to foot and mouth disease in the district, between August and November 2013. Yet, farmers in district are resisting the vaccination as they are under an impression that vaccination would will affect the milk procurement. “We suggest every dairy farmer to vaccinate his cattle as a precautionary measure, though it is not mandatory,” he said. The Milk Union of the district has also planned to set up 75 units for manufacturing cattle fodder using dry areca sheaths, by availing financial assistance from NABARD. As many as four units are already functioning in the district and eight more units will start functioning by this month end.
Milk deficit
Despite an increase in milk production, milk deficit has continued in the district. The district produces 2.6 lakh litre of milk as against the requirement of 3.5 lakh litres. “A mega convention of Nandini milk producers will be held in Bangalore on February 22 and 1,500 milk producers from the district will take part in the convention,” the DKMUL President said.
Board of Directors K Seetharam Rai, Monappa Shetty Ekkaru, Managing Director B V Sathyanarayana and others were present.
