At the heart of the standoff is a demand for a structural revision in milk fat pricing. Dairy farmers are urging the government to increase the baseline fat payout to ₹12 per unit, which would lift procurement prices to ₹80 per litre for cow milk and ₹100 per litre for buffalo milk. Currently, producers report receiving roughly ₹30 to ₹40 per litre for buffalo milk testing at 4% fat under prevailing rates of ₹8 to ₹9 per unit. Representatives highlighted the stark margin disparity with retail processing, pointing out that state cooperative brand Sanchi processes raw intake into high-value derivatives such as ghee and packaged products selling at retail rates around ₹70 per litre.

The push for higher farmgate payouts is driven by severe cost inflation across livestock inputs. Prem Singh Ranawat, district president of the Devnarayan Milk Union, emphasized that surging prices for commercial cattle feed, dry fodder, and jaggery have rendered smallholder dairy production economically unviable. As a direct alternative to raising procurement rates, protesting farmers submitted a memorandum requesting price controls on farm inputs—demanding that 50-kg bags of manufactured cattle feed be capped at ₹2,000 instead of current market prices of ₹3,500, and that jaggery used in feed rations be reduced from ₹80 to ₹30 per kilogram.

According to data from the Animal Husbandry Department, Rajgarh district maintains a livestock herd of approximately 652,792 animals, with roughly 60% (392,000 head) actively producing milk. While total daily district output averages around 450,000 litres, the Sanchi Milk Union—overseen by the MP State Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited—procures roughly 70,000 litres daily from the area. Cooperative officials noted that while intake dropped by roughly 2,000 litres during the peak of the strike, supply-chain frictions and scattered confrontations over milk transport underscored deep underlying tensions among rural milk suppliers.