Two friends, aged 11 and 12, eagerly wait every morning to receive a glass of milk when they arrive at their government school in Badami taluk, Karnataka. Since January, their wait and that of their schoolmates has been endless, and their cups remain empty.
In these three months, the students did not have the courage to ask their teachers why they did not receive milk. “What if they tease us, or get angry?” asked Ranjith*, a student.
Government and aided schools in more than a third of Karnataka’s districts have not received milk supply for the past three months under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme. The situation of the students will not change anytime soon, because they have entered their summer vacations, not sure if they will return in June to their usual, eagerly anticipated daily glass of milk. Many schools reported a drop in attendance following the milk shortage.
This disruption is a matter of concern because milk remains central to the public’s nutrition agenda. “In Kalyana Karnataka, malnutrition is an urgent problem. In previous years, the nutrition program emphasized the importance of drinking milk along with the mid-day meal. Surprisingly, this requirement was not available,” said Shantappa Yaligi, a primary school teacher from Yadgir’s Gurumitkal taluk.
Several studies have predicted that Karnataka will experience a severe milk shortage after 2021, as production will not keep up with the increase in consumption.
In the country, milk production is increasing. At a recently held dairy industry conference in Gandhinagar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the sector has grown at an annual rate of 6.6% in the last decade. According to Food and Agriculture Organization data, India will contribute nearly a quarter of global milk production in 2021-22.
Despite these encouraging numbers, most states are facing acute milk shortage. The reasons are varied. According to experts, the sector has not yet recovered from the slowdown caused by Covid-19 in 2020.
This health crisis was followed by Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in cows and an increase in the inflation rate, which forced dairy firms to raise the price of milk several times last year.
Also read | Traders accused of hoarding, raising prices amid shortage of ghee in Bengaluru
Input costs
Rising input costs of feed, health care and maintenance of cows has led to saturation in markets like Gujarat – which account for nearly 30% of the country’s total milk purchases. Farmers in Gujarat complain that their profits have come down drastically in the last two years.
“The milk situation is undoubtedly a bit tight in the country. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak and LSD, there is also a delay in the artificial insemination of cows,” said RS Sodhi, president of the Indian Dairy Association. Sodhi recently retired as managing director of Amul.
The country, he said, is facing a crisis with a wide gap between the demand and supply of dairy products.
Severe shortage of commodities also spread in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Low buy
Among other factors, the low procurement rate has also affected gross milk production. Angered by the lack of competitive prices, dairy farmers in Tamil Nadu have been throwing canisters of milk on the streets in protest for the past few weeks.
The total production of milk in Tamil Nadu is about 2.30 crore liters per day. Currently, the state has a daily deficit of 9 to 10 lakh litres. Aavin, the government-run milk union federation, buys around 30 lakh liters per day. It uses about 0.5% to 2% of its total purchases to manufacture the products
In Kerala, “there has been a decline of around 10% in procurement this summer,” said Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma) chairman KS Mani. Milma has a membership of about 10 lakh dairy farmers but only about 3 lakh farmers regularly supply milk.
“The compensation given to the farmers in the south is less compared to Gujarat and Rajasthan. Even if there is government subsidy for such farmers, the cooperatives have to increase the prices to encourage the farmers. -farmers to produce as much milk as private players,” said Sodhi.
Despite being the second highest producer of milk, Karnataka provides the lowest procurement rate to farmers. “While farmers in neighboring Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh get Rs 38 to Rs 40 per liter of milk through unions, our farmers get only Rs 33, including incentives. This is the lowest in the country ,” said an office manager of Bengaluru Milk Union Limited (BAMUL).
In Karnataka, a crisis
Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) is the second highest milk buyer in India. Through 14 milk unions and 14,000 additional milk cooperative units in over 22,000 villages, KMF procures, on an average, 84 lakh liters of milk per day.
During the peak season, milk procurement can reach nearly 92 lakh liters per day. However, during the lean period (during summer), the purchase falls to 75 lakh liters a day. This year the purchase has further reduced to 70 lakh liters per day.
According to a market research study, major dairies, including KMF, Tirumala Dairy, Dodla Dairy and Heritage Dairy transacted Rs 79,870 crore in 2021 in Karnataka. By 2027, this market could grow to Rs 1,886.7 crore.
This booming market is not a source of hope for the farmers and members of the milk society in the state. Instead, they see a bleak future. Disturbed by rising input costs, a section of small and marginal farmers have quit dairy farming, as they feel it is not profitable.
For one liter of milk, KMF pays a farmer Rs 27.9. The state government pays an additional Rs 5 as an incentive to feed the cow.
However, a farmer forks out anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000 to buy a cow, according to Prakash K Morab, a farmer in Hebballi village in Dharwad district. He has been supplying milk to KMF for the past 13 years.
Each cow needs 50 kilos of feed per week to stay healthy. The feed bags, given by KMF to farmers, cost Rs 1,020 four months ago. However, each bag now costs Rs 1,230.
After investing in maintenance, feeding, vaccination and labour, “one can save only Rs 800 to Rs 900 per week. However, when we work as labourers, we earn Rs 500 to Rs 700 per day,” he said.
Morab had four cows in 2019 but had to sell one in 2020 to recover from financial difficulties due to the twin outbreaks of Covid-19 and LSD. Another cow eventually succumbed to LSD.
“Dairy farming is like a gamble. Cattle are prone to diseases such as foot and mouth disease, bovine mastitis, bovine brucellosis and other diseases. Treating them is an expensive affair. For such a meager income, one has to take a high risk,” said Raju Navlekar, a Dharwad-based farmer.
Apart from these disturbances, the farmers accused the government and KMF of late clearing of dues. KMF waives the fees once in every 25 days, according to Nirmala Hunasikatti, secretary of KMF Hebballi society. Many farmers also complained that the incentive price of Rs 5 per liter was cleared once every two to three months. Disturbed by the delay, some farmers decided to supply milk to private dairies.
For example, in Hebballi, out of 400 dairy farmers, only 135 supply milk to KMF. The remaining supply to the private Navalur Dairy.
“We are a cash and carry business, so most farmers give us milk, even though my rate is lower than KMF,” said Erranna, a private milk collector in the village of Maradagi, Dharwad district. He pays farmers Rs 25 to Rs 35 for a liter during summer. During the peak, private dairies charge Rs 20 per litre.
At least two managing directors of milk unions admitted that there was a delay in debiting the amount of the incentive directly to the farmers. A BAMUL office owner said, “At a time when the cost of producing milk is going up, the government did not bite the bullet of raising the price in an election year. If we don’t give farmers a profitable rate, then how can we expect them to continue dairy farming at a loss?”
Also read | CM Bommai urged to restore milk supply to schools
The consequences
For the past two months, the four-storey milk-powder manufacturing plant of Dharwad Milk Union Limited (DAMUL) has remained silent. The plant has the capacity to produce 10 tons of milk powder but has been virtually idle since January this year.
DAMUL processes 2.10 liters of milk per day during the peak dairy-producing season. Of this, 70% of the milk (including curd) is sold at retail, while 20% is used for the production of by-products such as butter, ghee and Dharwad peda. The remaining 10% is used to make milk powder which is supplied to government schools under the ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ scheme.
In the last three months, DAMUL bought only 1.15 lakh liters of milk per day. The unit has almost stopped manufacturing products.
“Every day we need about one lakh liters of milk and another 9,000 liters of curd. We cannot meet the market demand of four districts (28 taluks) under our jurisdiction due to lack of supply. So, the question of preparing milk powder or products does not arise,” said DAMUL President Shankar Mugad.
As a result, government schools are experiencing a dairy deficit. “An informal survey of schools in our area revealed that children do not receive milk for three months because the schools do not receive milk powder,” said Basavaraj Layadagundi, a member of the Grameena Koolikara Sangha. .
Apart from schools, this shortage is tea shops, small businesses, hotels and households. The consequences of the lack of milk can be seen on many levels – for farmers in terms of their livelihoods, for the food and nutrition of families and for the daily operations of businesses. Without reasonable fair pricing and measures to address rising input costs and cattle diseases, India’s ever-growing dairy industry will wither away.
(*Other names have been changed upon request)
