BENGALURU: The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday approved a Rs 8 per litre hike in milk procurement prices. Of that, Rs 7 will go directly to dairy farmers and Rs 1 to milk unions to meet operational expenses, including packaging and transportation.
With this, the Karnataka Milk Federation’s Nandini milk prices will increase by Rs 8 per litre. The revised rates will come into effect on November 1.
“Karnataka’s milk price will be around Rs 54 per litre (from Rs 46 per litre). Even after the revision, it will remain lower than prices in several other states and competing brands,” Bengaluru Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said after the cabinet meeting.
Cooperation Minister Laxman Savadi, who was present at the press briefing along with Gowda, said prices of other KMF dairy products such as curd and ghee will also increase proportionately.
The final selling price will be decided by the respective milk unions, taking into account factors such as fat and solids-not-fat (SNF) content. KMF officials said a rate chart will be released on Friday.
Defending the cabinet decision, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said there has been a demand to raise milk prices for the last couple of years, and it has been done to prevent losses to farmers. “The government is helping farmers. Farmers are important to us,” he told reporters.
Shivakumar said there was a demand to increase the price by Rs 12 to Rs 15. “People pay Rs 30-35 for a litre of water. Compared to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the price of milk in our state is lower. Since the price was low here, milk was also being routed to Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. That needed to be prevented,” he said.
Dairy farmers to get Rs 47/L, including incentive
“The government took this decision because farmers were facing losses,” Shivakumar said. The CM said MLAs across party lines had also demanded a milk price hike. “A decision could not be taken earlier due to the elections. Now that elections are over, the decision has been made,” he told reporters.
With the revision, the procurement price paid to farmers will increase from Rs 35 to Rs 42 per litre. Including the existing state government incentive of Rs 5 per litre, farmers will effectively receive Rs 47 per litre. “About 228 taluks have been affected by drought, and the El Niño effect and summer conditions have also affected milk production. Daily milk procurement has declined by around 10 lakh litres. In this situation, it is our responsibility to support dairy farmers,” Gowda said.
He also said milk prices in Karnataka remained lower than those in several other states, even after the proposed revision. Citing comparisons, he said milk is priced at around Rs 59 per litre in New Delhi and Maharashtra, Rs 57 in Gujarat and Rs 64 in Telangana. Prices in Kerala were around Rs 56 per litre, while some competing brands charged considerably more. He added that decision to increase procurement prices was an independent decision of milk unions, which operate autonomously. The government was facilitating the support for farmers, he said.