In a show of her appreciation of the good work put in by the 17 milk cooperatives in  the state of Tamil Nadu, Chief  Minister Jayalalitha   has given them an incentive of  more than Rs.26 crore to work still harder in the future.

According to the government statement, these cooperatives have earned additional revenue totaling about Rs 50 crore.

Official source claims, Chief Minister’s generous gesture would benefit more than two lakh milk farmers belonging to the successful cooperatives in the state.

Analysts say Tamil Nadu under Jayalalitha’s leadership is a place where the cooperative movement is gathering momentum.

Punjab cooperative milk producers’ federation  has had a bumper  milk collection this season  from thousands of  milk cooperative societies and  dairy farms  dotting  the state.

Despite a glut of milk on the market Milkfed would not lower retail rates , it  would  increase procurement  price for farmers, sources say.

According to the knowledgeable sources, Milkfed  is being extra-careful not to  hurt the interests of  farmers   and therefore  an  increase  in procurement price is under their active  consideration.

During the  winter season this year  milk  procurement counting  more than a million and a half littres a day  has surpassed the records of the previous years.

According to the dairy experts , the cold months abounding in   green fodder   are generally  the  most favourable period for milk production.

Milkfed is also  planning  to  have the additional supply in storage so that they could use it later  in the  lean months. This, they reckon, could  enable them to be less dependent  on National Dairy Development Board and other organisations  for getting their supplies of skimmed milk powder and whole milk powder.

Tamil Nadu has focused on improving the performance of milk Co-operatives by adopting a systematic approach and proper strategy in milk co-operatives. Significant achievement has been made by Milk Producers’ Cooperative Societies, Unions and Federation in the State.

The commercial activities such as milk procurement, processing, chilling, packing and sale of milk to the consumers etc., hitherto dealt with by the Tamilnadu Dairy Development Corporation Ltd., were transferred to the newly registered Tamilnadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited, popularly known as “Aavin”.

Now Aavin, is emerging as a leading cooperative set-up in the State. It had under its purview as many as 600 milk suppliers’ cooperative societies. The federation was procuring 1.59 lakh litres of milk every day, of which one lakh litres were sent to Chennai, 50,000 litres set aside for local consumption and the remaining converted into milk powder.

Payment of about Rs. 2.5 crore to Rs. 3 crore was being made to milk suppliers every week and only few days’ arrears were pending.