Maharashtra to give Rs 3 per litre subsidy to milk farmers

In a major relief for farmers, the government of Maharashtra has announced Rs 3 increase subsidy to milk farmers by raising its procurement prices from farmers without affecting purchase price for consumers.

Average milk procurement in Maharashtra is estimated at 12.3 million litres. Hence, the government would require bearing an additional subsidy burden of Rs 1,400 crore annually.

In an announcement today, Mahadev Jankar, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Development, Government of Maharashtra, said, "The state government has decided to raise milk procurement prices for farmers by Rs 3 a litre without passing on the increase to consumers. The decision was taken today for the benefit of millions of farmers across the state."

With this, the cow and buffalo milk procurement price would go up to Rs 27 a litres and Rs 36 a litre from the existing Rs 24 a litre and Rs 33 a litre respectively.

The government, however, has clarified that the procuring dairy farmers would not pass on to consumers.

Concerned with rising feed prices and stagnant realisation, lakhs of farmers in the state had staged a protest across the state and went on seven-day strike while demanding milk prices at Rs 50 a litre. The government, however, had assured them to accept some price increase which would help farmers increase their realisation.

The state government, however, has clarified that the increase in milk price would be deposited to the farmers account directly. To monitor the smooth transfer of funds, the government has set up a committee which would help open bank account of all farmers within two months.

The minister warned that actions would be taken against those dairy farmers not implementing the price increase as per today's government directive.

Faced with the realisation being sharply lower than the cost of milk production, farmers had poured thousands of litres of milk on road during the protest rally early this month.