Karnataka Milk Federation’s purchase of feed paying Rs 69 crore, the highest in a single month in 2012, might land its chairman and MLA G Somashekhara Reddy in fresh trouble.
According to the Dairy Research Institute, the purchased cotton seed de-oiled cake (CSDOC) is highly adulterated. Following a sample submitted by the KMF feed unit, Bangalore, to the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), southern campus Bangalore, asking it for a feed ingredients report, the NDRI disclosed high rate of adulteration.
According to experts in the dairy field, crude protein and crude fibre are the two major ingredients which boost milk production and keeps the cow healthy.
But as per NRDI report, crude protein in the sample provided is 36 per cent, which is below the prescribed average of 41 per cent.
Similarly, crude fibre should not be more than 11.2 per cent as it causes indigestion in cows but CSDOC has a 26 per cent crude fibre content, double the prescribed average.
Other ingredients such as nitrogen-free extract should be between 40-60 per cent, acid detergent fibre 41 per cent, acid detergent lignin 11 per cent should be in the CSDOC, but the report shows that the sample contains 24.5 to 33 per cent, 43 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
As per the documents available with Express, during March and April 2012, KMF did not purchase CSDOC citing financial difficulties when the rate was between Rs 14,000 and Rs 15,000. But KMF agreed to purchase 14,100 tonnes of CSDOC at Rs 20,650 per tonne on July 12, 2012 and 14,600 tonnes at `27,000 per tonne on July 27, 2012.
When contacted, Somashekhar Reddy told Express over the phone that quality control should be looked into by the officials at Karnataka Milk Federation.
“As per my knowledge, quality of purchased CSDOC is good because quality control director Nataraj is an honest officer,” he added.