Amul raises milk procurement rate by Rs 10

VADODARA/ANAND: The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) popularly known as Amul Dairy has decided to again raise milk procurement prices by Rs 10 per kg fat.
This means that farmers will be getting Rs 600 per kg fat from January 11 against the current rate of Rs 590 per kg fat.
The dairy union had increased the procurement prices from Rs 580 per kg fat to Rs 590 per kg fat on November 11, 2016.
“Although, we have ensured that all our 6.52 lakh farmers of 1,100 plus milk societies have their bank accounts, 100 % payments are not being done because of insufficient cash in banks,” said Amul Dairy’s managing director Dr K Rathnam.
“In fact, there are 454 village level milk societies with nearly 1.20 lakh farmers associated with them where a farmer has to travel minimum 5 to maximum 25 km to either reach a bank or an ATM. By increasing procurement prices, we want to give them an assurance,” he said.
The dairy is currently in talks with district co-operative bank and the State Bank of India to put micro ATMs or point of sale machines and to appoint business correspondents so that money deposited in farmers’ accounts reach to the beneficiaries.
“Another reason for increasing procurement prices is the fact that cattle feed prices which were at Rs 16,885 per metric tonne are at Rs 17,300 per metric tonne now,” he said. The dairy is currently witnessing six percent growth in milk procurement. While its procurement from Gujarat stands at around 22.5 lakh litres per day, from other states like Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal it procures nearly 6.2 lakh litres per day.
Currently, there are 2.6 lakh farmers who supply milk to the dairy on daily basis.