Dairy farming is one of the main sources of income for rural and semi-urban families in the Kuppam Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
As a child, N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in India had some light moments with him during his visit to Kuppam Assembly constituency on Monday.
Currently this has resulted in a decline of ₹5 per liter in milk price which is a matter of concern among predominantly women farmers involve in dairy farming. This abrupt fall has caused unrest among these female farmers as they have not yet bee informed about what led to this sudden drop.
This leads to uncertainty about why prices reduced because private companies run the entire dairy sector without direct supervision from government.
Over time, women farmers have borrowed money from banks and individuals to invest into thriving cottage industry of dairy farming in that area. In a day, approximately 7 lakh litres are produce under Kuppam, Gudupalle, Shantipuram and Ramakuppam mandal constituencies.
During his recent visit to Kuppam town the CM expressed his determination to make sure that more milk is produced by ensuring that daily produce increased up to 10 lakh liters per day. Furthermore, he promised “three milch cows” each family residing in Kuppam; an increase from two cows per family before bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh State.
However, despite their optimism about being returned back into power by Mr. Chandrababu Naidu Government and its support for them recently over lowly prices of milk: it has unsettled the women farmers whose hopes were restored through their latest optimism.
Gudupalle mandal’s Saraswathi (45) was planning expanding her herd after promise of subsidy by Mr. Naidu. Many farmers are now discourage due to decrease in the price at which they sell milk but few months ago. This was against the milk companies’ position that Kuppam’s increased milk production is responsible for this whereas Mr Naidu promised to increase it to 10 lakh litres a day.
It’s worth noting that, last year, one liter of milk costed ₹40 which however gradually decreased from ₹40 in May to ₹30 in June thus putting pressure on women farmers. Some farmers complained that their milk stock was not being take up by dairy companies thereby worsening things. Some farmers tried to sell excess stocks of milk to Bangalore and environs with the support of men but this effort failed as transportation costs and competition with rural Bengaluru farmers were among the obstacles.
The manager of a dairy unit in Shantipuram mandal stated that there was an increase in milk production during elections. However, at the same time there was a decrease in exports of powdered milk resulting into surplus powdered milks and collection from farmers subsequently went down. Generally, women farmers are hopeful that they will once again get good returns if only exportation of powdered milk resumes.
