UMERKOTE: Dairy farmers of Umerkote, Jharigam and Raighar blocks in Nabarangpur district are in troubled waters as Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (OMFED) has reportedly stopped buying milk from them.
The farmers used to sell over 10,000 litre of milk to the dairy major daily. The farmers alleged that the milk chilling centre at Dhodra village of Jharigam block has stopped buying milk from them.
This has come as a blow to the farmers who are also not able to sell their produce in Chhattisgarh due to Covid restrictions.
Sources said OMFED is not buying milk from farmers for the last five days citing sub-standard quality. Messages stating that their milk does not match the standards have been sent to the farmers’ mobile phones.
As per OMFED’s Jeypore centre, the amount of fat in milk sold by farmers of the three blocks is 4 per cent instead of the prescribed 3.6 per cent and the lactometer reading is 27 against 26.
Dhodra centre supervisor Banita Mohapatra said she had written to the general manager of OMFED to stop purchasing milk from farmers of the three blocks. Meanwhile, farmers have threatened to take to the streets if milk is not procured from them soon.