Federation urges Karnataka government to release ₹5 a litre support price for milk

Udupi Dairy Farmers' Federation urges government for ₹5/litre support price, increased payments, welfare trust contributions, and more.

The Udupi District Dairy Farmers’ Federation on Thursday, May 16, decided to urge the government to release ₹5 a litre support price for milk procured from farmers that has been pending for the last seven months.

In a meeting of the federation members, including milk societies’ representatives and farmers in Udupi, they also wanted the milk federations to increase the payment to a minimum of 50 paise a litre to societies. Also, it resolved to pay 5 paise each per litre of milk procured from farmers towards farmers’ and employees’ welfare trust.

Participants also resolved to urge the milk federation to stop the deduction of 15 paise per litre towards the development fund because of the reduced milk production in the district. Besides encouraging milk production, the federation should also put a stop on transportation of milch cows to other districts.

Members said the milk federation should arrange a supply of quality silage and wanted a group insurance scheme to cover dairy farmers and their families as well as employees of societies. The government should allow the milk federation to increase milk and milk products’ prices by ₹2 in the undivided Dakshina Kannada district and pay the entire amount to farmers as done by the previous government considering the district as a special zone.

Former presidents of the federation Sasthana Jagadish Karanth and Vittal Shetty Mandarthi, heads of different milk producers’ societies including Gopalakrishna Hegde Kemmannu, Shripathi Adhikari Balkudru, Bhaskar Shetty Ammunje, Benedict Noronha, Om Prakash and others spoke.