Covid-19: As milk prices fall in Maharashtra, dairy farmers feel the squeeze

Dairy farmers in Maharashtra have started out to feel the pinch of the lockdown with procurement selling prices of milk dipping by twenty to fifty for each cent. Drop in their profits also means decrease quantity of feed becoming presented to cattle.

Because of to deficiency of demand, farmers who employed to make processed milk solutions these as curd, butter, ghee and khoya as a cottage sector, now market milk at decrease costs in the market. Khoya is an intermediary milk item, which is employed as a raw content for earning traditional sweets.

Farmer chief and Basic Secretary (Maharashtra) of All India Kisan Sabha, Ajit Navale, said that because of to the lockdown, milk demand from restaurants, tea stalls and sweet outlets has appear to a standstill. The State Governing administration has certain that 11 lakh litres of excess milk will be procured for each working day from farmers by the cooperative dairies for which cash would be delivered by the State Governing administration. However, it has not translated into further profits for the farmers.

Navale said that ahead of the lockdown, cow milk was marketed by farmers at ₹30 to ₹35 nowadays, it has dipped to ₹20 to ₹22. In some sites, it has even dipped to ₹12 for each litre. This milk is becoming procured by personal dairies. On the other hand, because of to logistics challenges, animal feed materials have turn out to be irregular, foremost to a appreciable leap in selling prices.

Dairy farmer Shankar Dandge from Matola village near Nandura town in Buldhana district sells milk to regional buyers and dairies, as the famed Nandura khoya market has been closed down since of the pandemic. In advance of lockdown, the amount close to Nandura was ₹35 for each litre for cow milk nowadays, he is pressured to market milk at ₹25 for each litre.

Dandge said that everyday milk creation from his cows is a hundred litres. The ₹10 dip in selling prices has translated in for each working day losses of ₹1,000 for him. And considering the fact that profits has declined, the animals way too are getting lesser feed.

Farmer Arpan Sontakke from village Takarkheda Additional, Anjangaon Surji taluk in Amravati district, is also in the very same boat. Milk was becoming procured close to Anjangaon Surji at ₹38 for each litre this has now slid to ₹27 for each litre. Because of to the losses, he has currently marketed 1 cow to an additional farmer.

Sontakke laments that he just can not afford to pay for to feed the very same amount of fodder and cattle cake to his cows. Earlier, he employed to feed a three-kg cattle feed cake, which has now been slashed to one.five kg since of decrease earnings from the sale of milk.

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