Karnataka   

Is incentive for milk a boon or a bane?

PRO-PRODUCTION: Cows being milked with the help of modern equipment at a village in Kolar taluk.

KOLAR: Even as the State Government’s move to provide an incentive of Rs. 2 per litre of milk is being widely hailed as a boost for dairy farming, some quarters have expressed apprehension over the lack of preparedness of the authorities to tackle the decision’s resultant effect.

“What are the preparations made by the Government to tackle the boom in milk production?” is the question being asked.

Milk collection through cooperative societies and other channels in the State stands at about more than one crore litre per day. It is expected to double once the incentive scheme is implemented giving rise to marketing and other problems, it is felt.

According to Kolar District Cooperative Union (DCU) president Byalahalli Govinda Gowda, the dairy sector is encountering several problems such as unsold milk and the lack of market for milk powder. “It is bound to aggravate in the future once the Rs. 2-incentive scheme for dairy farmers is implemented,” he warned.

A large quantity of milk is being processed at a cost of crores of rupees a month. Though unsold milk is utilised to produce milk powder, the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) is incurring heavy loss due to the lack of demand for this product, Mr. Govinda Gowda said.

Speaking to The Hindu, he suggested that the Government prepare an action plan in consultation with the KMF to tackle the problem of profusion. A serious thought should be given to take up production of more by-products of milk, he said. The absence of precautionary measures might boomerang, he cautioned. It is imperative on the part of the Government to deliberate with the experts too, to face the effect of what he termed as the “new white revolution”.

Protecting dairy farmers from the clutches of private operators was the need of the hour, Mr. Govinda Gowda said. It is noteworthy that dairy farmers supply about 80 lakh litre of milk to private firms while it was only 30 lakh litres to the KMF through the milk producers’ cooperative societies.

The Government should not concede the demand regarding extending the incentive scheme to the private sector. Instead, all dairy farmers should be brought under cooperative societies and given the incentive, he said.

While there are many issues to be addressed in the wake of the Government move, it was felt that the incentive scheme should be extended to all farmers irrespective of they being in rural or urban areas. It was feared that the provision in the scheme confining the incentive only to rural farmers may create an income gap and inequality among rural and urban farmers.

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