The Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Welfare Association (TNMPWA) on Thursday has urged the State government to increase the milk procurement price.

Recently, the Salem district Deputy Registrar (dairy) P. Senthill Kumar said that farmers, who are members of cooperative milk societies, should supply milk to the society or they would be removed from the society’s membership. Meanwhile, some milk producers announced that they would stop supplying milk to societies on March 17 if the procurement price of milk was not increased.

TNMPWA general secretary M.G. Rajendran said that Aavin was giving ₹35 per litre for milk, while private dairy companies are now offering ₹ 37 to ₹42 per litre. So farmers preferred to supply the milk to private dairies instead of Aavin across the state. Due to this, the Aavin, which procured 36 lakh litres per day a few months ago, now received only 28 lakh litres of milk.

“We urge the government to increase the procurement price per litre to ₹42 from ₹Rs. 35. We also ask the government to increase the selling price of Aavin milk based on an increase in the procurement price. If the government does not want to raise the procurement price, it should give farmers in the society ₹5 per litre of milk as an incentive. So the government must act quickly in this matter to protect farmers and milk societies. On behalf of our association, we did not announce any protest on March 17. Some people in our association name announced protest. The TNMPWA is not responsible for that as we are the registered body, Mr. Rajendran clarified.

Source : The Hindu March 02nd 2023