July 13, 2020
Before the attack of Covid, government schools in Karnataka were consuming about 47 tons of whole milk powder daily, or nearly 4 lakh kg per day (LKPD) of cow milk. Due to Covid-19 which has affected not only school going children, who are unable to access cooked nutritional food under the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme, but also has affected farmers for whom it provided an definite market for sustainability.
The best sorted example is the Karnataka government’s Ksheera Bhagya scheme that offers free milk over and above the MDM food entitlement. Under it, around 64 lakh children studying in 55,683 government schools from Class I to X, and another 39.5 lakh aged six months to six years in 64,000 anganwadi centres, across Karnataka are given 150 ml and 125 ml of milk, respectively daily for five days of the week.
“It is a significant market. The supplies to schools have totally stopped, while we are continuing to deliver to the CDPOs (child development project officers) in different talukas (sub-districts). They deal with the village/ward level anganwadi workers, who are to go to the doorstep of beneficiaries even while their centres are shut” said an official of the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (KMF) that markets dairy products under the ‘Nandini’ brand.
Under Ksheera Bhagya Scheme, carried a budget of Rs. 1,043 crore in 2019-20. The KMF makes whole milk powder (WMP) available to schools and anganwadi centres. A school child’s 150-ml daily milk quota is made by adding hot water to 18 gm of WMP, while it is 15 gm in the case of the 125 ml for anganwadi beneficiaries.
According to the data available, earlier to corona out-break, government schools in Karnataka were consuming 47 tons of WMP daily on an average, equivalent to nearly 4 lakh kg per day (LKPD) of cow milk containing 3.5% fat and 8.5% solids-not-fat. Along with the 35 tons (3 LKPD) by anganwadis, the total off take of 7 LKPD accounted for almost a tenth of the KMF dairy unions’ average procurement of 75.61 LKPD in 2019-20.
“We have clearly lost a market of 4 LKPD, even as our procurement itself has increased by 4 LKPD. Last year, our peak procurement was in June, when it touched 84.44 LKPD. This year, we have crossed 88 LKPD in the current month. With normal sales also falling (due to the collapse of out-of-home consumption), our milk powder stocks have already reached 18,000 tons and will further accumulate in the coming months (with improved fodder availability from the monsoon rains),” the spokesperson admitted.
KMF unions are said to have slashed procurement prices for cow milk from Rs. 29-30 to Rs. 24-25 per litre since the March 25 lockdown. Also, farmers have reportedly not received the said amount of Rs. 6/litre as an incentive paid by the Karnataka government in addition to the procurement price, for which a separate sum of Rs. 1,459 crore was budgeted in 2019-20 and Rs. 1,250 crore this fiscal for the last three months.
Besides Karnataka, Gujarat is yet another state where milk is included as part of MDM and ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) programmes in schools and anganwadis. But ‘Dudh Sanjivani Yojana’ that serves 200-ml of fortified flavoured milk 5 days a week, is limited to about 30 lakh beneficiaries with a budget provision of Rs. 342 crore for 2020-21.
As per the survey and data analysis, along with dairy farmers, poultry farm owners have faced a loss from closed schools. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh offer five eggs a week as supplementary nutrition under MDM, adding up to 160 for every school-child over 32 working weeks. Other states providing eggs in MDM include Telangana (thrice a week or 96 per child per year); Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tripura (twice or 64 annually); and Kerala, Bihar, Assam, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir (once or 32). They also supply to anganwadis technically operating for 300 days a year: Telangana (7 eggs per week); Odisha (five), AP (four); TN, Jharkhand and West Bengal (three); Karnataka (two); and Bihar and Tripura (one).
That, again, makes for a not-small market. “AP and TN alone lift 55 lakh eggs daily, with Telangana doing another 30 lakh. All states put together procure and distribute up to 2 crore eggs under MDM and ICDS, which is 7-8% of the country’s 25 crore per day production,” estimated Sanjeev Chintawar, Business Manager of the Hyderabad-based National Egg Coordination Committee.
According to Chintawar, the shutdown of schools has led to 70% of the 2 crore eggs per day MDM-ICDS market being lost and poultry farmers, too, have cut down daily production to 20 crore eggs.
“Recouping losses is more difficult for layer (egg) than broiler (chicken meat) farmers. A broiler bird is market-ready in 35-40 days from the chick-rearing stage, whereas a layer takes 18-20 weeks just to start producing and will give 400 eggs till its life cycle of 80 weeks. MDM-ICDS has a potential for consuming 6-7 crore eggs daily, which can help stabilise the market for farmers and also deliver nutrition to poor children,” Chintawar informed.