Milk cheaper than water in Maha
Priyanka.Kakodkar@timesgroup.com
Sangli:
Across Maharashtra’s once prosperous milk belt, many dairy farmers face this stinging reality: the milk they sell is cheaper than water.
Some get ₹23 per litre of cow’s milk, mainly in the milk hub of Kolhapur. But most earn just ₹17-₹19. By comparison, bottled water sells at ₹20 per litre. Once the milk reaches consumers in cities, the price doubles to ₹40-44. But farmers do not get a share of the mark-up.
As the milk economy curdles, the sight of milk dumped on roads has become emblematic of farmer protests. A year ago they got up to ₹27 per litre of cow’s milk but prices fell by ₹4-₹10 eight months ago as a result of a surplus and a crash in international skimmed milk powder prices.
With several dairies cutting procurement rates by ₹2 from Thursday, the crisis is mounting.
Prices plummeted post ryots’ strike
With several dairies cutting procurement rates by ₹2 from Thursday and some choosing not to buy cow’s milk at all, the crisis is mounting.
Babasaheb Mane from Sangli’s Mahuli village was once a proud dairy farmer. He made ₹30,000 a month from his four cows last year. Today, he and his wife work as farm labourers to keep their home running.
Mane sells 40 litres of milk daily for ₹17 per litre. “I make ₹720 a day but spend ₹1,000 on the cows. I used to make a profit of ₹15,000 per month but now Imake a loss of ₹9,000,” he says. Farmers here are trapped between the fall in procurement rates and sharp increase in the costs of inputs, including fodder, oil-cakes and lactation pellets for cattle over the last year.
Maharashtra’s formal sector collects 115 lakh litres of milk daily. In June 2017, after the historic farmer strike, the state hiked the procurement price from ₹24 to ₹27 per litre. However, prices plummeted in just a few months. Since November, the state has had a surplus of 22 lakh litres per day. At the same time, international skimmed milk powder prices fell 30-40%. Unable to sell their milk powder stock, dairies faced losses and cut the price offered to farmers. Maharashtra currently has stocks of 29,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder.
The bulk of the state’s dairy sector is private. Only 1% of the state’s milk is bought by the government and 39% by cooperative dairies mainly controlled by the Congress and NCP. As much as 60% is bought by private dairies.
The state admits it cannot control prices in a de-controlled sector dominated by private players. “When the Milk Control Order was in force till mid-2000, the state controlled licences to dairies. But now milk is an open commodity,” said state dairy development commissioner Rajeev Jadhav.
Priyanka.Kakodkar@timesgroup.com
Sangli:
Across Maharashtra’s once prosperous milk belt, many dairy farmers face this stinging reality: the milk they sell is cheaper than water.
Some get ₹23 per litre of cow’s milk, mainly in the milk hub of Kolhapur. But most earn just ₹17-₹19. By comparison, bottled water sells at ₹20 per litre. Once the milk reaches consumers in cities, the price doubles to ₹40-44. But farmers do not get a share of the mark-up.
As the milk economy curdles, the sight of milk dumped on roads has become emblematic of farmer protests. A year ago they got up to ₹27 per litre of cow’s milk but prices fell by ₹4-₹10 eight months ago as a result of a surplus and a crash in international skimmed milk powder prices.
With several dairies cutting procurement rates by ₹2 from Thursday, the crisis is mounting.
Prices plummeted post ryots’ strike
With several dairies cutting procurement rates by ₹2 from Thursday and some choosing not to buy cow’s milk at all, the crisis is mounting.
Babasaheb Mane from Sangli’s Mahuli village was once a proud dairy farmer. He made ₹30,000 a month from his four cows last year. Today, he and his wife work as farm labourers to keep their home running.
Mane sells 40 litres of milk daily for ₹17 per litre. “I make ₹720 a day but spend ₹1,000 on the cows. I used to make a profit of ₹15,000 per month but now Imake a loss of ₹9,000,” he says. Farmers here are trapped between the fall in procurement rates and sharp increase in the costs of inputs, including fodder, oil-cakes and lactation pellets for cattle over the last year.
Maharashtra’s formal sector collects 115 lakh litres of milk daily. In June 2017, after the historic farmer strike, the state hiked the procurement price from ₹24 to ₹27 per litre. However, prices plummeted in just a few months. Since November, the state has had a surplus of 22 lakh litres per day. At the same time, international skimmed milk powder prices fell 30-40%. Unable to sell their milk powder stock, dairies faced losses and cut the price offered to farmers. Maharashtra currently has stocks of 29,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder.
The bulk of the state’s dairy sector is private. Only 1% of the state’s milk is bought by the government and 39% by cooperative dairies mainly controlled by the Congress and NCP. As much as 60% is bought by private dairies.
The state admits it cannot control prices in a de-controlled sector dominated by private players. “When the Milk Control Order was in force till mid-2000, the state controlled licences to dairies. But now milk is an open commodity,” said state dairy development commissioner Rajeev Jadhav.
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