Karnataka   

Dairy farming gives them a steady income

TAKKALAKI (BIJAPUR DISTRICT): Once upon a time, locked doors used to greet visitors in this water-starved village near the Maharashtra border as most of the residents used to migrate to other States in search of jobs.

However, of late, they have begun to rear cattle and stay put in the village.

There is limited greenery here.

Yet the village produces over 1,000 litres of milk a day.

“For the last six to seven years we have stopped going to Karad, where we used to work in a brick kiln. Now, we have two cows and the income is not less than Rs. 10,000 a month,” said Satyavva Huchchcppa Natikar, a middle-aged woman.

According to her, the new occupation has made them stay back as it funded their children’s schooling as well. Gangavva Shivappa Natikar, another woman from the same village, also had a similar story to narrate.

Their success does not end here. They have formed a self-help group, through which they get loans at nominal interest for developing their venture.

Though the people of the village took to dairying in the mid-80s, it picked up pace only in 2000. Now, there are over 300 head of cattle, according to Jawaharlal Vithoba Jadav, president of the Takkalaki Milk Producers’ Cooperative Society.

In the beginning, they reared ordinary breeds, but switched over to the high-yielding Holstein-Friesian breed on the advice of the Bijapur Cooperative Milk Union Ltd. (BCMUL), under which the society functions.

With a promising income, some of the members have also taken up grape cultivation, albeit on a small scale.

All these would not have been possible without the support of BCMUL, Mr. Jadav said.

The union, apart from providing a guaranteed market for milk, provides logistic support, including cattle-feed, medical kits and artificial insemination, at subsidised rates.

Many societies under the union are doing well. But what is special about the Takkalaki society is that most of its members are landless Scheduled Caste people, says B.B. Shivalkar, managing director of the union.

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