Punjab dairy farmers demand raising of milk procurement rate

Punjab dairy farmers today threw milk on roads near milk processing plant in Mohali as part of their protest against the "apathetic" attitude of state government towards their demand of raising the milk procurement prices.
    
"Punjab government owned Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (Milkfed) has not raised milk procurement prices from farmers for the last one year, though it has been giving higher price to an NGO in Rajasthan for procuring milk," Progressive Dairy Farmers' Association president Daljit Singh today said.
    
Punjab dairy owners are getting Rs360 per kg fat from Milkfed while it is offering Rs400 per kg fat to NGO in Rajasthan for sourcing 50,000 litre of milk per day, Singh alleged.
    
Agitated dairy owners said that they would launch their protest march at various parts of the state including Moga, Sangrur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Jagraon and Ludhiana to press the state government to raise rates.
    
"Despite the fact that our input cost has gone up substantially along with incidental cost like bank interest, our procurement prices have not been raised," Singh said.
    
According to dairy farmers, Milkfed has been giving a raise of 20% per annum in milk procurement prices starting 2007 to 2010.
    
Notably, Milkfed had raised retail rates of milk thrice by Rs one per litre during the past one year.
Milkfed procures around 9.5 lakh litres of milk per day from large and small dairy farmers across the state for processing.