Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today sought the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Ministry of Agriculture for initiating major steps to boost dairy sector across the state in general and supplement the income of dairy farmers in particular.   

In a letter to the prime minister, Amarinder demanded one-time subsidy on the stocks of skimmed milk powder (SMP) at the rate of Rs 50 per kg and white butter at the rate of Rs 25 per kg as on March 31, 2018. 

Likewise, he also sought interest subvention on working capital loan availed by state milk federations for the milk flush season from November 2017 to April 2018.   

He also urged the prime minister to ask the Ministry of Commerce to enhance the export incentive on dairy products by state milk cooperatives from the current rate of 5 percent to 15 percent of the value of the consignment.   

The CM wrote to Modi that the dairy cooperatives in the country are passing through tough times due to a steep fall in the prices of SMP and other milk products in the international milk market over the last couple of years.   

The fall in the prices has resulted in non-procurement of milk by the private sector thereby putting the entire pressure on the dairy cooperatives. The national level stocks of SMP crossed 1 lakh tonnes in November 2017 and it was expected that the stocks will cross 2.25 lakh tonnes by March 2018.   

The stocks of SMP with Punjab States Milk Federation have crossed 6,000 tonnes (against 3,000 tonnes in 2016) and the same is likely to cross 15,000 tonnes by March 2018 (against 8,000 tonnes in March 2017). 

Similarly, stocks of white butter are currently 3,500 tonnes (against 500 tonnes last year) and the same are likely to cross 10,000 tonnes by March 2018 (against 5,000 tonnes in March 2017). 

Amarinder informed the prime minister that in view of the current situation in the state, a lot of working capital (arranged through bank overdraft and short-term loans) is getting blocked as the state milk federation has to make timely payments to the dairy farmers.  

In order to safeguard the interests of the dairy farmers, the state government was currently being compelled to maintain a huge amount of inventory of SMP and white butter due to continuous procurement of milk as failure to do so would result in distress sales as the stock prices of these commodities have touched an all-time low.  

Adding further, Amarinder said these steps, if taken by the Centre, would go a long way in strengthening the dairy cooperatives besides improving the taneconomic lot of beleaguered dairy farmers in the state. PTI