Milk farmers demand Goa Dairy’s support

Bicholim: Alleging that the government is attempting to privatise Goa Dairy, milk producers from Sal and other villages in Bicholim taluka have demanded full cooperation from Goa Dairy authorities to retain their business.
Sal’s milk producers said Goa Dairy has not been successful in taking different schemes to farmers.
The chairman of Bhumika Milk Producers Cooperative Society, Adinath Parab, said that 53 of the 200 dairy farmers in Sal have not received the support price for the past nine months. Goa Dairy owes them Rs 16 lakh, he said. He added that with fodder becoming expensive, farmers can’t wait any longer to receive the support price.
A member of Nandini Milk Producing Cooperative Society, Ladfe, Mahadev Gaddi said when they contacted Goa Dairy to ask about the delay in the payment of the support price, they were told it was due to the shortage of staff. SUMUL farmers, he said, get the paid support price every two months. “We suspect Goa Dairy is internally supporting SUMU.”
A milk producer from Sal, Vishal Parab, said when an animal dies no support is received from the animal husbandry department.
Amthane Milk Producing Cooperative Society chairman Vaibhav Parab said that rural societies so far have not received the benefit of the online system that was introduced seven years ago.