The pandemic caused by Corona virus, which has forced India to remain shut for 21 days, has affected livelihoods of dairy farmers severely. The result being in many states such as Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Assam dairy farmers have thrown thousands of litres of milk either on roads or dumped in drains not knowing what to do with the excess quantity that they could not sell or as a mark of protest against the sharp dip in milk prices.
Not only dairy farmers, the shutting down of economic activities has made other people associated with dairy sector feel as vulnerable. Experts feel the issues being faced are multiple and can be addressed through a regulation that looks at pandemic management.
Experts point out how within a week into the lockdown, the demand in dairy sector saw a sharp dip, as only raw milk used by household was considered essential commodity. However, milk in India is used not only by dairy industry but by sweetmeat shops, bakeries and so on as primary raw material. But since these uses fall under non-essential, businesses focussed on these areas are finding it difficult.
Further, the storage facility for this commodity is still poor and milk being perishable, needs fast disposal. Hence, the government at this juncture needs a detailed pandemic management regulation to look into such a situation.
Arpita Mukherjee, professor, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) explains, “Dairy farmers are facing a number of issues. First due to the sudden closure of local processing units, sweet shops, bakeries and eateries there is a huge fall in demand. Second, milk is perishable and we don’t have adequate storage facilities. Third, while government is trying to remove the logistics barriers yet in many places there is shortage of transport operators. Overall, for lockdown it is unclear what should be considered as an essential commodity and there are variations across states in terms of approach. For example West Bengal announced that sweet shops can open.”
In this regard, “A pandemic management regulation will be helpful,” she felt.
As for the throwing of milk, incidents have been reported in Palakkad, where dairy farmers poured milk on roads as the local cooperative milk marketing federation failed to procure milk. Around six lakh litre of milk is procured daily in the Malabar region of Kerala. Local authorities say that the demand has dipped by half.
Similarly in Punjab, the prices have crashed to Rs 25 per litre from Rs 44.25 per litre, while the cost of producing one litre remains high.
In Karnataka, and Assam, as well, it was reported that farmers dumped thousands of litres of milk into canals as protest.