Errors in software delay disbursal of hiked incentives to dairy farmers in Karnataka

MYSURU: For every litre of milk that dairy farmers across the state supplied to the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), each of them receives on average Rs 24 to Rs 26. In addition to the money paid for every litre of milk supplied to the KMF, the farmers are paid an incentive, which was revised, with effect from April 1, 2019 from Rs 2/litre to Rs 5/litre.
However, delay in the launch of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, wherein the Department of Animal Husbandry will directly credit the money to the farmers’ bank accounts through a dedicated software developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has resulted in the farmers not receiving the inflated incentives.
Since there are as many as nine lakh dairy farmers across Karnataka, the dues that the KMF owes to the farmers has mounted to Rs 550 crore. However, KMF authorities are confident of the new DBT software becoming operational in the next few days, and settling the dues to dairy farmers for the month of April at the earliest.
Interestingly, the incentive scheme for supply of milk was launched in July 2008 during BS Yediyurappa’s first stint as chief minister.
“The hike in the incentive has meant that KMF owed the farmers a cumulative sum of Rs 110 crore every month. The dues have accumulated over the past five months, and the total now comes up to Rs 550 crore,” said a source in the KMF.
Dairy farmers, however, are understandably upset with the delay in the disbursal of incentives. A dairy farmer told TOI that, generally, the incentives either every month, or once in two months. “But this year, we have not received incentives since April,” said the farmer.
Mahesh Channanna, a dairy farmer in Hosabandikeri in Mysuru, said that the incentives provided by the government markedly increased the margin of their profit, which was vital to keep their business economically viable. “It is the incentive offered by the Animal Husbandry department that makes this profession lucrative for us, besides the subsidised fodder. We have not been paid the incentives we are entitled to for the past five months. This amounts to thousands of rupees, which is a huge sum for us. Whenever we inquire the KMF officials about this, they inform us that the hold-up is from the government’s end,” said Channanna.
KMF officials said that the incentives were given directly to the farmers at the local dairies. “However, the Karnataka department of animal husbandry decided to adopt the DBT system, which involves crediting money to the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of the suppliers using the Khajane II software. The data is fed to this software at the local dairy, and the funds are subsequently distributed to the farmers. Unfortunately, there were some errors in the compilation of data, which are being rectified,” said a KMF official.
Managing director of the Mysuru District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Mymul) Vijay Kumar assured the dairy farmers that the incentives they were to receive for the month of April would be credited to their accounts soon. “In Mysuru, the bank accounts of nearly 98% of the dairy farmers are already seeded with their respective Aadhaar cards,” said Kumar.
Director of the KMF, DN Hegde said that the dairy farmers would receive their incentives for the past five months in a phased manner. “DBT is being used for the first time to pay incentives to dairy farmers. We are using a specially designed software to transfer the incentive from Khajane II. Minor mistakes at the entry level have delayed the process. I can assure the dairy farmers that there are no other causes,” said Hegde.