While consumers in Mumbai fret over the likelihood of their milk supplies drying up due to the indefinite blockade launched by farmer groups, the worries of Siddheshwar Ghuge, a marginal farmer from Laul village in Solapur's Madha taluka are more complex.

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"While a litre of milk costs me around Rs 27 to produce, I am paid about Rs 16 by the dairy. Costs of inputs like feed are rising while procurement prices are falling. I am facing a loss of around Rs 11 for every litre sold," said Ghuge (35), who owns three Holstein cows, which yield around 17 litres each in two daily milkings.

"Once in 10 days, when I get my dues from the dairy, I have to think twice before buying a packet of biscuits for my two children," he added, pointing to the economic distress faced by dairy farmers.

In dry-land areas like Madha, where agriculture is unreliable, people like Ghuge depend on the dairy business for sustenance between crop cycles. "I own 5 acre of land on which I grow maize, tur and jowar. Since maize is a five to six month crop, the milk business sustains us between these cycles," he said, adding some dry-land farmers sourced fodder at high rates incurred costs up to Rs 35 per litre of milk.

Ghuge, who has a debt of Rs 1 lakh incurred on purchasing his cows, said he was forced to work on other's farms while the womenfolk tended the cattle. "The dairies and milk federations buy milk at cheap rates and then sell it to consumers in Pune and Mumbai for rates as high as Rs 42. Both producers and consumers are being exploited. While commodities prices are increasing, it is only milk procurement prices that have fallen," he lamented.

Ashok Pawar, another marginal farmer from drought-affected Khatav in Satara stressed that farmers must get remunerative prices for their produce. "Today, we can just make ends meet, there is no wealth... how many farmers can afford to construct bungalows? It is just don number wale who can do it," said Pawar, who owns two Jersey cows and one Murrah buffalo.

"I sell cows' milk at Rs 18, down from Rs 25 earlier... our household runs on the milk business," said Pawar, who grows maize, ginger and jowar on his six-acre farm. After the milk blockade started, Pawar distributed milk for free and made basundi at home.

Mahavir Patil, CEO of Swabhimani milk founded by farmer leader Raju Shetti, said the crisis in the sector was a combination of multiple factors. Farmers preferred to purchase cows rather than buffaloes due to the higher yield of milk and shorter barren period (two months against four months annually), leading to a glut in supply.

The flush season of milk, which usually begins in October and ends in April, is still continuing, noted Patil, adding this was accompanied by a fall in international prices of milk powder. The ban on slaughter of bullocks and restrictions on transport of buffaloes, whose culling is not proscribed, also leads to farmers being burdened with unproductive cattle.

Patil suggested distribution of milk and milk products in the mid-day meal scheme in schools, a single-brand on lines of Gujarat's Amul to streamline the highly unorganised sector, inculcating professionalism and curbing adulteration of milk as some measures to provide a respite to the dairy farming ecosystem.