Plan to increase Aavin’s milk procurement in Tirunelveli district to 70,000 litres a day

District Collector aims to increase Aavin's milk procurement to 70,000 litres daily by forming milk cooperative societies in villages.

A review meeting chaired by District Collector R. Sukumar here on Tuesday resolved to increase Aavin’s milk procurement in the district from the existing 32,000 litre to 70,000 litres a day.

Addressing the meeting, Dr. Sukumar said Aavin was procuring 32,000 litres of milk everyday from the dairy farmers through 157 milk producers’ cooperative societies in the district even though demand for milk from the consumers was high. Hence, the entire quantity of milk being purchased from the suppliers was being sold to the consumers.

To increase the purchase from the farmers to 70,000 litres a day to bridge the gap between demand and supply, steps were being taken to form milk cooperative societies in each revenue village of the district.

“If 25 milk producers come together, we can form a cooperative milk producers’ society in the village and register their society with Deputy Registrar, Dairy Development for supplying milk to Aavin. Hence, interested dairy farmers may contact the Deputy Registrar. Our objective is to procure at least 200 litres of milk from each village in the district and the producers will get the amount every week through their bank account. Moreover, the milk producers will also get the monthly incentive of ₹3 per litre,” said Dr. Sukumar.

The Collector explained the strategies to be adopted for increasing the milk procurement from the dairy farmers.

“We are ready to give loans to the dairy farmers through the cooperative societies and the nationalised banks for increasing milk production besides the kisan credit cards. Hence, this information should be shared with the farmers in every village. Moreover, the officials should also tell the farmers that their milch animals would be insured through Aavin along with the government’s subsidy,” the Collector said.

During his mass contact programmes being organised in rural Tirunelveli, Dr. Sukumar has appealed to the dairy farmers to supply their milk to Aavin. The prime reason behind the drop in supply is attributed to the cut-throat competition from the private milk firms and the drop in production due to the onset of summer.