The Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association on Friday (June 12) demanded that the State government hike the milk procurement price as promised in the TVK election manifesto.

Association president R. Rajendran said that currently the government provides ₹38 a litre of cow milk and ₹47 a litre of buffalo milk. Over the past three years, fodder prices increased 100%. Owing to the fuel price hike, the price of the 70-kg fodder bag rose by ₹250 over the past two months. This hurt dairy farmers in rural areas, he said.

In the TVK election manifesto, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay had mentioned increasing procurement prices to ₹44 for a litre of cow milk and to ₹60 for a litre of buffalo milk.

The Madras High Court had ordered to provide an acknowledgement copy to dairy farmers and settle the cash for milk at the Aavin cooperative societies. But this order was yet to be complied with. The State government should enforce the court order to help the farmers, Mr. Rajendran added.

As for quality tests, Mr. Rajendran said Aavin currently followed the Modified Richmond Formula (MRF) norms while procuring milk from farmers, because of which dairy farmers were suffering a loss of ₹65.50 crore a year. He demanded that Aavin follow the Bureau of Indian Standards norms instead.

Moreover, the government should provide subsidy of 75% for insuring cattle and introduce an insurance scheme that ensures compensation in case of cattle death.

Demanding special funds for Aavin due to revenue loss sustained over the past years, Mr. Rajendran said that during the tenure of the previous DMK government, ₹3 was reduced per litre of Aavin milk. Due to this price reduction Aavin lost around ₹1,500 crore over the past five years.

The government, as such, should compensate Aavin for its loss. Likewise, from November 2023, the incentives provided to dairy farmers are mostly converted into shares of the Aavin union. “This is not acceptable, and this should be stopped,” Mr. Rajendran added.