Milk turns sour as prices set to fly
Sunday, 24 January 2010
NEW DELHI, Jan 23 (Commodity Online): From a country desperately importing milk and milk products, India has shown it can do wonders in dairy sector as it not only became self-sufficient in milk production catering to millions of Indians but also exported milk products.
Part of its credit goes to one person called Dr Varghese Kurian. But since his career ended, India is back to its unique milk shortage condition and the blame game has already begun.
India produced 108.5 million tonnes of milk last year and this is expected to jump to 166 million tonnes by 2020. The shortage is now witnessed in some areas, especially north Indian states. But milk prices are increased almost on a weekly basis in other states too. Co-operatives, which are the back bone of milk procurement, are demanding that they should be given a free hand to decide on the milk retail prices.
But these co-operatives are now behaving like corporate entities. The real idea of co-operatives helping the farmers to fetch more milk has gone for a toss. Dairy development has taken a backseat, as bodies like NDDB have become big corporate houses milking the consumers and the farmers alike.
The central government says Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana with a corpus of Rs 5.50 billion for dairy development in the current five-year plan is under utilized as only Rs 2.63 billion has been availed by the states so far which has led to erosion of farmer base in the dairy sector.
Analysts say the government is completely lost and have little idea what to do with ministers in key ministries having their own fiefdom and doing close to nothing to arrest the price rise.
Part of its credit goes to one person called Dr Varghese Kurian. But since his career ended, India is back to its unique milk shortage condition and the blame game has already begun.
India produced 108.5 million tonnes of milk last year and this is expected to jump to 166 million tonnes by 2020. The shortage is now witnessed in some areas, especially north Indian states. But milk prices are increased almost on a weekly basis in other states too. Co-operatives, which are the back bone of milk procurement, are demanding that they should be given a free hand to decide on the milk retail prices.
But these co-operatives are now behaving like corporate entities. The real idea of co-operatives helping the farmers to fetch more milk has gone for a toss. Dairy development has taken a backseat, as bodies like NDDB have become big corporate houses milking the consumers and the farmers alike.
The central government says Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana with a corpus of Rs 5.50 billion for dairy development in the current five-year plan is under utilized as only Rs 2.63 billion has been availed by the states so far which has led to erosion of farmer base in the dairy sector.
Analysts say the government is completely lost and have little idea what to do with ministers in key ministries having their own fiefdom and doing close to nothing to arrest the price rise.