Industry experts have blamed poor management skills, competition within cooperative societies and the arrival of private dairy centres as the primary reasons.
Despite an increase in production from milk cooperative societies in Madurai, senior officials attached to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (TNCMPFL) are worried as 122 milk cooperative societies have ceased production.
According to official records, over 870 milk cooperative societies have been registered under the district cooperative (dairy) department in Madurai, of which 122 have become dormant, without any milk production for the last six months. Industry experts have blamed poor management skills, competition within cooperative societies and the arrival of private dairy centres as the primary reasons.
Speaking to TNIE, MS 2347 Loga Dairy Farm Cooperative Society president V Ajith Kumar said, “My society had 60 members with a large number of milk farmers in Usilampatti. We used to procure 1,000 litres of milk and supply it to Aavin daily. It was a win-win system for Aavin, the cooperative society and the milk farmers.
But as soon as a private dairy company launched a procurement unit in our village, we began to face the heat. The private dairy company started to offer money in advance to the farmers, by offering Rs 1 lakh for two cows, which resulted in the milk farmers preferring the private entity.”
Tamil Nadu Milk Farmers Welfare Association (Madurai) president P Periya Karuppan said, “In many villages, there are about five cooperative societies, which is an extremely competitive environment. Private dairy companies offer Rs 5 extra per litre on all categories of milk.
However, private entities tend to reduce the price of procurement, when the demand drops, leading to the farmer moving back to cooperative societies associated with Aavin, which offer stable prices and long-term growth. There is a lack of interest among youngsters towards milk farming and this in turn affects the cooperative societies which were started off-late. Hence, the small and new cooperative societies are turning dormant.”
An official from the district cooperative department (dairy) said, “Many societies have fewer members.
There are societies which offer just 50-60 litres of milk to Aavin daily. If there is a personal issue between the milk farmer and the society, the milk farmer offers his milk to another society in the same village. The rivalry between societies causes the smaller societies to go dormant. Aavin will not be affected, as it will procure milk either way. Recently, we have started offering incentives to cooperative societies and procurement has increased.”
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