SME Times News Bureau | 01 Aug, 2018
Demanding
subsidy in exports and fixed minimum price of their produce, scores
of dairy farmers demonstrated in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Gathered
under the banner of All India Progressive Dairy Farmers Association
(AIPDFA), the farmers spilled milk on the road and threatened of a
nation-wide agitation if their demands were not met within 15 days
and submitted a list of their demands to the Prime Minister.
"Modi
government promised to double the agriculture income by 2022 and the
Central government announced hike in the MSPs for various crops, but
it completely ignored the dairy farmers who contribute 26 per cent in
total agriculture GDP of the country.
"Many
agriculture farmers have adopted dairy farming as a side business to
compensate losses in the crops, while many others are totally
dependent on dairy farming. Dairy farming is a cash business which
runs the kitchens of rural families on a daily basis," AIPDFA
President S. Daljit Singh Sadarpur said at the protest.
Farmers
are demanding a fixed price of Rs 30 for cow milk and Rs 50 for
buffalo milk, apart from 50 per cent export subsidy in place of 10
per cent, which the government has on offer now.
Talking
to IANS, Sadarpur stressed that dairy farmers are in a bad shape
partly because of stocking of three lakh metric tonne condensed milk
for export in various warehouses of the country, which could not be
exported because of slump in international prices.
"We
have demanded an export subsidy of 50 per cent from the government,
but it has offered us only 10 per cent. Only three months are left
before the off season starts, no one will buy our milk for even Rs
20. Situation will become very bad then for farmers across the
country," Sadarpur said.
Farmers have also demanded
exemption from GST on all milk products and zero import duty on farm
machinery and tools.