Maharashtra dairy sector could only achieve 50% of its procurement target
Maharashtra state was the first one to announce a milk procurement program to collect 10 lakh litres of milk at Rs 25 per liter from the farmer and creating its own buffer stock of SMP and butter. The sceheme was supposed to procure almost 4.5 to 5 crore litres of milk in around 6-7 weeks till May 31st. In reality they could collect only 2.6 crore litres of milk and made 2100 MT of powder and 1.1 MT of butter. On one side the processors are saying that they have not received payment from the government while on the other hand the government official says that the processors have not submitted evidence that the farmers are paid at the rate of Rs 25 per liter. The state government initially kept Rs 127 crore for this purpose out of which Rs 50 crore is ready with Mahananda (their state federation) and the disbursement will begin immediately after processors submit their details.