Himachal’s white winter

What has come as a boost for the milk producers is the intervention of the HP State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, which has started procurement from areas that have no reliable marketing infrastructure. The milk is brought to collection centres at some central point and transported by the Federation’s vans to its chilling plants. As much as 52,000 litres of milk is collected from 600 collection centres each day, and the payment (Rs 10.80 per litre) is made through cheques between the 7th and 10th of every month. Every milk producer, small or marginal, is required to have a bank account.

“Milk production is linked to hard work because of tough terrains, yet it has become a major source of livelihood for farmers, including women,” says Harinder Sharma, a milk producer at Kotla Mollar village in Sirmaur.

A recent price increase of Rs 2 per litre, combined with timely payments, has provided a big incentive to individual milk producers—faced with delayed payments and low rates till two years ago—especially when most milk producers in the unorganised sector are selling milk for up to Rs 17 per litre in cities.

Himachal’s daily milk production is 10-11 lakh litres, mostly from the unorganised sector, whereas the demand is more than 15 lakh litres per day. The major local supplies are not from dairies but from domestic cattle, even though the terrain is not suitable for cattle and the producers have to depend on local breeds.