KALABURAGI: As one enters Gowli Galli of Sarasamba, the smell of boiling milk hangs thick in the air. It’s after all the ‘khova village’, where most of the households are engaged in making khova an integral ingredient of many a mouth-watering sweet like peda, jamun and kunda. Sarasamba, Duttargaon and Koralli are among eight villages in Kalaburagi district where khova-making functions as a home industry. So you have members of the family divide work among themselves: one goes to buy cow/buffalo milk, the other to fetch firewood, another to engage in the task of stirring milk and preparing khova while one member markets the product.
Khova, in short, is the bread and butter of some villages in Kalaburagi and also a few dotting Bidar, with around 800 people involved in making it. But it is now lending a bitter taste in these households. Many families, which used to be in the business for over 40 years, have begun to abandon khova-making due to a variety of reasons, the foremost being the high price of milk.
Khova made in Sarasamba and Kadwad, Bidar, is famous and much in demand in Hyderabad, Solapur and Akkalkot in Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka. But now these home units are on the verge of closure. Earlier, families would procure milk for `15-18 per litre from farmers but now the Karnataka Milk Federation’s (KMF) Kalaburagi-Bidar unit buys milk at `35 per litre. This has made milk producers cut supply to khova producers and give it all to KMF.
Shanappa Jamadar, also called Shanappa Khova in Sarasamba, says milk procurement is a major problem. Their unit, which used to produce 20 kg khova daily, now hardly produces 8 kg. All seven members in the family were involved in khova making. But now they earn just `300 a day, which is not sufficient to run the family, says Shanappa.
Ravichandra Gowli of the same village says despite the reduced quantum of produce, Sarasamba’s khova remains much sought after. He says it is a lot of hard work and when profits dip, the younger generation sees no future in it. “We go to the milk farms and purchase milk at `30 per litre to prepare khova.” Gowli produces 20 kg of khova daily.
Manik Gowli, a khova maker, says Sarasamba produces 50-60 kg of khova daily. “If we get huge orders, all unit owners make efforts to make the required quantity. At present, five families are engaged in the business,” he said.
Aland MLA BR Patil, also from Sarasamba, says banks should provide loans to farmers to purchase milch animals and encourage khova industry as it is a home industry.