Saurashtra milk producers protest against National Dairy Development Board

Around 1,500 milk producers from Surendranagar of Saurashtra Kutch Dudh Utpadak Manch met at the Dairy maidan in Surendranagar town on Monday morning to protest against the formation of a company by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) instead of a cooperative outfit that will collect milk from four districts of Saurashtra and Kutch.

A few years ago, NDDB started collecting milk from the arid regions of Saurashstra and Kutch with the promise of redistributing the profits to the farmers following the successful models of Central Gujarat. “However, a commercial entity has been formed now under which the profits will go to shareholders and not to the milk producers.

Moreover, NDDB is yet to clear dues worth Rs5 crore of 70,000 farmers. We submitted a memorandum to the Collector, who asked us to renegotiate with NDDB. Now, we are going to wait for at least a fortnight before deciding on our next move,” said Sagar Rabari, an activist who is supporting the movement.