A milky jolt to Kerala from TN

ExpressbuzzWednesday, March 03, 2010 6:11 PM IST

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Food | Travel | Health | Cars Home > States > Tamil NaduA milky jolt to Kerala from TN



C ShivakumarFirst Published : 03 Mar 2010 02:09:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 03 Mar 2010 09:20:16 AM IST



CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu may once again cut down milk supplies to Kerala, with the state undergoing a lean period in procurement of the essential commodity, according to a spokesperson of the Tamil Nadu Cooperatives Society.



Tamil Nadu was supplying 1,05,000 litres of milk per day to Kerala as per a recent agreement. Due to a decrease in milk procurement during the lean season the state is currently supplying the Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma) only 50,000 litres of milk per day, the spokesperson told Express on Tuesday. �There is a likelihood of stopping this too to meet the demands of the state�s consumers. We are procuring 20 lakh litres of milk per day from the cooperative societies. Chennai alone consumes about 10.5 lakh litres per day,� the spokesperson said.



Earlier too, TN had suspended milk supplies to Kerala during a lean period. In April 2007 the State stopped sending milk t o Milma, saying it had no surplus.



Milma then procured milk from Karnataka and for a while from Maharashtra.



On whether supplies of milk were adequate for TN�s needs the spokesperson said, �This a lean season, and as such there is a dip in the procurement.



It is a normal phenomenon.� Currently the state procures 22.5 to 23.5 lakh litres on average per day from the cooperative societies. At the primary cooperative society level, the procurement is 26.22 lakh litres annual average per day, while at the district union cooperative level it is 23 to 23.5 lakh litres of milk per day. The spokesperson also said the buffalo population in the state had been hit and currently, cooperative societies under the she-buffalo crop rearing scheme were planning to raise milk production.



�We have brought 1,410 she-buffalos under the scheme. They will be reared and taken care of by the district unions. According to the 17th Livestock and Poultry Census, buffalo population in the state has decreased from 27.41 lakh in 1997 to 16.58 lakh in 2004.