Dairy farmers staged demonstration in front of the Collectorate on Wednesday demanding hike in price of milk procured by the Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (OMFED).
Under the aegis of Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan (SZKSS) and Samaleswari Anchalik Dugdha Mahasangha, the farmers took out a rally from Nelson Mandela Chowk and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to Collector Subham Saxena.
They demanded increase in procurement price of milk from `22.85 per litre to `35 per litre. Dairy farmer Kusadhwaja Choudhury said price of the milk procured by OMFED has not been increased in the last four and half years even though price of other agricultural produce has been increased by the Government during the period.
Apart from hike in the procurement price of milk, the dairy farmers demanded setting up of a skimmed milk powder manufacturing unit in the State and provide bonus on milk. They also said OMFED should bear all the expenses incurred by milk producers’ cooperative societies to run the societies.
They threatened to intensify stir if their demands are not fulfilled soon.