The Short supply in dairy is meted out with supplies from Malabar region
The rising mercury level, and the succeeding shortage of green silage for cattle have hit milk procurement by the regional union of cooperative milk producers though there has been a good rise in the numbers of dairy enterprises in the region.
John Theruvath, Chairman of Ernakulam Regional Cooperative Milk Producers Union (ERCMPU), stated, “The milk procurement had dipped to 3.35 lakh liters a day while the sale was around 3.60 lakh liters. The milk supply situation was balanced immediately after the winter season when procurement had exceeded daily sales”.
Further on he said, “The shortage in milk procurement by the Milma union was partly being met with supplies from the Malabar region while a part of the shortage was being filled in by procurement from the neighbouring state of Karnataka”.
The ERCMPU comprises primary dairy societies in Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam and Thrissur, districts.
During lockdown, the region was able to achieve self-sufficiency with an increased milk production whereby the procurement level had risen to 3.60 lakh liters per day while sales demand stood around 3.30 lakh liters.
The said 30,000 liters of the excess milk procured by the union was processed for value-added dairy products. The Ernakulam region comprises 933 Anand Pattern primary societies, with which around 46,000 dairy farmers are associated.
In addition to the prevailing procurement price, in Feb’21, the regional milk union decided to pay Rs. 3/litre extra for the betterment of the farmers.
Theruvath cited, “The lockdown period had witnessed more people taking up dairy farming as a means of livelihood and the cooperative was trying to support the farms raised mostly by expatriate Malayalis”.