HUBBALLI: While the Narendra Modi government came to the rescue of farmers with the price support programme, the Siddaramaiah government in the state is doing just the opposite with the reduction in the milk procurement price, said Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution, and Consumer Welfare Pralhad Joshi.
Joshi stated that in the wake of falling prices, the Central government was buying food grains at minimum support prices. However, the state government has slashed the procurement price of milk by Rs 1.5 a litre, he added.
The farmers of the state are in dire straits following crop damage due to heavy rain. At such a time, the Central government increased the support price for green gram, black gram, sunflower and soybean and allowed the opening of procurement centres. However, milk unions in the state have reduced the procurement price of milk, he added.
Two months back, the government burnt a hole in the pocket of consumers by increasing the milk price by Rs 2, and now it has hit milk producers by reducing the procurement price, Joshi said.
“The real losers in dairy farming are not milk unions, but farmers. Because the cost of milk production has doubled. Prices of cows and buffaloes have increased. Animal feed prices have also doubled, and so rearing has become expensive,” he said.
If such a situation persists, small farmers will turn away from dairy farming, and the milk sector could become a monopoly of private milk producers, Joshi said, and appealed to the government to immediately withdraw the price reduction order and ensure fair prices for milk producers.
STOP UNIONS’ MOVE: HDK
Bengaluru: Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy has slammed the decision by milk unions to reduce the milk procurement price by Rs 1.50 per litre and urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take immediate action to prevent this. He said milk unions have unilaterally reduced the procurement price from Rs 30.50 to Rs 29 per litre. The CM should pay attention to this as they claim it to be a pro-farmer government, he said.