Agriculture: The brief window of four hours—between 6 AM to 10 AM—during which milk businesses can operate daily in locked-down Karnataka has brought down sales of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) by over 27 percent.
Before the lockdown, about 36 lakh litres of milk was being sold daily. Since Saturday, April 24th, 2021, KMF has seen a decline in milk and curd sales of between 6.5 lakh and 8 lakh litres a day. In Bengaluru alone, the biggest market for KMF, milk and curd sales have dropped by more than 1.5 lakh litres.
Despite the dip in sales, KMF has increased its daily procurement of milk from about 72 lakh litres earlier to 80 lakh litres a day now. This is because more farmers are turning to the state-owned KMF as private dairies stop procurement. This volume is expected to go up further since several milk-producing districts have received good pre-monsoon rain.
KMF operates about 1,700 milk parlours, including 1,000 in Bengaluru, and its retail brand, Nandini, is sold in thousands of outlets across the state.
During the lockdown in 2020, the state government had paid KMF INR 79 crore for about 2.11 crore litres of milk that it purchased for 28 days and distributed among the poor free of cost. The federation is seeking similar support this year too.
Read this article to know more about the future of agriculture in India.
