Yeddy says no but Reddy firm on milk prices hike from Mar 1
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Feb 17: Even as Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has made it clear that there is no proposal for hiking Nandini milk prices, Karnataka Milk Federation Chairman G Somashekhar Reddy on Wednesday asserted that milk prices will have to be increased from March 1.

Reddy, the youngest brother of the all powerful Bellary mining lords – ministers G Janardhana Reddy and G Karunakara Reddy – who replaced JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s son H D Revanna, indicated that he would meet the chief minister on February 20 toconvince him on the need to increase the milk prices.

Pointing out that an increase in Nandini milk prices were inevitable in view of the need to help
dairy farmers who are in distress due to the increasing costs of cattledfeed.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inaugural session of a three-day national conference on ``Indian dairying : Productivity and food safety,” organised by the Indian Dairy Association, he said there was a big difference in the milk procurement prices between the KMF and other private dairies.

``It costs about Rs 15.97 to produce a litre of milk,’’ he said pointing out that KMF was
giving only Rs 13.60 a litre to farmers while the state government is providing an incentive of Rs 2 a litre. Despite this, the farmers will suffer a loss of 30 paise a litre, he said.

Reddy said that some farmers in the KMF network had started supplying milk to private dairies as they were paid a higher price. There is a possibility of others selling their produce to private dairies if KMF failed to increase the procurement price by Rs. 2 to Rs 4 a litre.

Increase in milk procurement prices will help KMF in meeting its target of increasing the milk production from the present 36.7 lakh litres a day to 71.2 lakh litres by 2016-17.

KMF officials had already forwarded a proposal regarding hike to the chief minister, he said, adding: ``I too have forwarded a proposal to the chief minister recently. I will discuss all the problems
related to farmers’ distress and convince him about the need to increase the milk prices.”

Earlier addressing the conference, Reddy said the milk procurement of KMF had grown at an average of 2.4 lakh litres per year in the last five years. The Federation is now trying to increase this to 5.5 lakh litres a year for the next five years.

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) with the help of Infosys Technologies has developed an web based integrated information network covering all aspects of productivity enhancement. ``We have been working on this with Infosys for two years and the project is at
present being field tested in Gujarat and Karnataka,” Dr Amrita Patel, Chairperson NDDB, Anand, told reporters on the sidelines of the 38th three-day Dairy Industry Conference.

It is not possible to measure progress with respect to enhancement of productivity without collecting performance records of animals and using them to estimate the breeding values. The starting point for this is the identification of the animal with a unique number, she said.   

Reliable information is also a key requirement for monitoring and decision making for any initiative aimed at increasing productivity, she said underscoring the need for developing a comprehensive web-based national information network covering all aspects of productivity enhancement such as breeding, nutrition and healthcare. Such a network could make relevant information available to producers, service providers and policy makers, she added.