PRATIK PARAB
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PANJIM: The government of Goa is spending crores of rupees on various schemes to boost milk production in Goa, without any real growth in production.
The State is facing a daily shortage of milk amidst allegations that there is a scam right from the supply of milch animals to the managing of subsidy schemes provided by the government.
The State is presently collecting 39,000 litre of locally produced milk while procuring another 13,000 litre per day from outside. A large chunk of 2 lakh litre of milk sale has been taken over by non-Goan national brands.
The government has spent close to Rs 112 crore through nearly eight various schemes to promote dairy farming and to increase milk production in the State.
However, for the last 4 years, there has been minimal growth along with drops in production in milk production in Goa.
According to the records of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 2018-19, the production of milk was 57,000 litres. In 2019-20 it climbed to 61,000 litres and fell to 60,000 litres in 2020-21. The production of milk as of 2021-22 was 63,000 litres and according to the Economic Survey presented by the Government of Goa, the milk production in 2022-23 is little above 60,000 litres (see table).
The Government has almost eight schemes to promote dairy farming and boost milk production. The marquee scheme amongst all those is the Kamdhenu scheme, which started with a lot of expectations.
The Government of Goa has distributed 2,553 Milch Animals during the last three financial years at a cost of Rs 16.83 lakh and given them to 617 farmers across the state at a whopping 80 per cent and 90 per cent subsidy. Even after all this, procurement and distribution the increase in milk production seems to be minuscule.
It may be recalled that the Gram sabha of Sodiem-Siolim had questioned the veterinary officials of the Department of Animal Husbandry recently over the supply of poor quality milch animals to dairy farmers.
President of the village Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), Peter D’souza has alleged that the supply of animals is a scam. He said that the supplied animals are of poor health and quality and are given hormonal injections like Oxytocin and the animal looked healthy, thus forced to produce milk in abundance.
However, the joy of the farmers is short-lived as the milk production of the animal subsequently reduces.
“They have been dumped on the farmers and they won’t survive long. This is a scam,” he said.
Former Chairperson of the Goa Dairy Cooperative Milk Producers Union Madhav Sahakari informed, “Goa Dairy and the occupation of dairy farmers of Goa are on the brink of getting destroyed and collapsing completely. There are 5000 dairy farmers in Goa dependent on the Goa Dairy and dairy farming. Because of continuous bad decisions and State apathy, dairy farming in Goa is in tatters,” Sahakari said.
Former Chairman of Goa Dairy, Rajesh Faldesai said, “There is no green fodder available for the dairy farmers. The available fodder is unaffordable. This is the basic necessity to keep a dairy up and running,” he said.
Ironically, the State government disbursed Rs 12.51 lakh under Green Fodder Development Scheme to 103 beneficiaries during the last three financial years.
However, this is the tip of the iceberg as some farmers have anonymously informed that the scheme is nothing but a “continuous scam for more than a decade”, which has got worse in recent years.
