Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore
Mangalore, Jun 10: Raviraj Hegde Kodavoor was unanimously elected president of Karnataka Milk federation (KMF) for the next five years on Monday June 9. This is the third consecutive term that he has been chosen as president. All the procedures have been carried out as per government rules and regulations.
A C Renuka Prasad, KAS, district officer, Backward Class Development Board, served as the election officer during the election procedure and officially declared Kodavoor the president.
Kodavoor’s was the sole nomination received for the post of president. The election was carried out by 16 elected and 4 nominal directors and one government appointed director, making a total of 21 directors. All the directors and the election officer rendered their best wishes to the newly-elected president.
Speaking after being declared the president, Kodavoor said, “The achievements reached in my last tenure are not mine alone. All the directors have put their faith in me and I will live up to it.”
“The milk collection which was at 2,10,000 lt came down to 1,80,000 lt during my first tenure, but now it has again touched 3,08,000 lt per day. We have set up various plans and projects to increase the collection rate. Compared to other milk producers around, we are giving the best price to farmers,” he added.
“My team and I have never discriminated or been party to any injustice. Hence, the people have supported us all these years and trusted us. Farmer-friendly projects are on the anvil and overall development is our main motto. As a part of future plans, we have proposed a flexi-packing unit at a cost of Rs 32 crore. We have a plant at Manipal but the holding capacity there is very low and also there is no room for improvement or widening, due to various issues. We have 6 acres of land in Uppoor and we also plan to construct another dairy in Uppoor at an estimated cost of Rs 40 to 45 crore. The existing plant in Manipal will be converted into an ice cream unit and modern machinery will be put in,” added Kodavoor.
“We have also adopted nearly 5,000 female calves around two years back under the scheme ‘Karu Sakanike Yojane’. Under this scheme, we are encouraging farmers to have calves by giving them subsidy on the maintenance cost, support for fodder development along with subsidy for ‘gobar’ gas, and auto milk yielding machineries. Thus, once the calf turns out to be a cow and yields milk, our milk collection rate will be higher. Cattle theft has been increasing and the police must take action and help the farmers find the lost cows,” he added.
KMF managing director Sathya Narayan, former presidents Seethram Rai, Divakar Shetty, and Niranjan and directors were present on the occasion.