Farmers who supply milk to Aavin through village-level cooperative milk societies have been complaining of inadequate supply of cattle feed.

A year after increasing the production capacity of the Erode cattle feed manufacturing factory from 150 to 300 tonnes, Aavin has constructed a 1,500-tonne storage facility at the plant. The dairy federation has also established a storage warehouse with a 1,500-tonne capacity for milk powder at its Tiruvannamalai plant.

These facilities, along with several other infrastructure facilities developed by the dairy development department, were inaugurated by Chief Minister M K Stalin through video conference on Tuesday.  The works were taken up at a total cost of Rs 12 crore, an official release said.

Farmers who supply milk to Aavin through village-level cooperative milk societies have been complaining of an inadequate supply of cattle feed. They have also been demanding an increase in procurement prices.  “The installation of the storage facility enables the factory to produce cattle feed at its maximum capacity, and the surplus can be stored during periods of low demand. The facility was built at a cost of Rs 2.14 crore,” an official said.

Surplus milk obtained from farmers was converted into milk powder at the Tiruvannamalai plant. The plant’s per-day milk powder capacity is 20 tonnes.  The factory currently has a storage capacity of 1,500 tonnes, and the extra 1500 tonne storage will prevent any excess milk powder from being stored in private dairies. The diary storage building was built at a cost of Rs 2.93 crore.

Stalin also inaugurated a training institute for women, along with a lab, library and hostel at a cost of Rs 1.21 crore at Tirunelveli District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited. Collector K P Karthikeyan and Tirunelveli Mayor P M Saravanan lit the traditional lamp. The chief minister also unveiled new buildings for the Dharmapuri and Tiruppur district milk producers’ unions.