Milk crisis: Agri Min for doubling incentive to 20 pc to boost dairy exports

In view of the ongoing milk crisis in Maharasthra, the Union Agriculture Ministry today said it has asked its commerce counterpart to double the export incentive on dairy products to 20 per cent in the interest of farmers.

On July 13, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had notified 10 per cent export incentive for milk powder, casein and other dairy products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).

"Considering the present scenario, the (Agriculture) Department has again requested to increase export incentive for milk and milk products and casein from 10 per cent to 20 per cent for the benefit of farmers," the ministry said in a statement.

Several steps have already been taken to help farmers overcome the ongoing milk crisis in Maharasthra, it said.

To curb imports, the Centre had on March 27 hiked import duty on whey milk powder to 40 per cent from 30 per cent.

That apart, the states have been told to take steps to supply milk and milk products through mid-day meal scheme and aganwadis.

States like Karnataka, Bihar and Rajasthan have started supply of milk/milk products to schools under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme.

Also, soft loan at an interest rate of 5 per cent is being given to support the state cooperative dairy federations under the scheme which has a corpus of Rs 300 crore being managed by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), it added.

Milk growers are protesting in some parts of Maharasthra due to falling prices of milk amid huge supply.