Karnataka Milk Federation is the second largest milk dairy in Karnataka in India, dedicated to offer quality milk and dairy products to all its consumers.

Milk Federation Karnataka – initiating ways for increasing its milk production and managing the surplus milk production, The President of the Karnataka Milk Federation(KMF) ,  P Nagaraju  , consigning the press persons revealed the fact that KMF will be setting up the “Mega Dairy” in Dharwad district and a dairy unit in the Ramadurg region of the Belagavi district in order to strengthen the cooperative milk movement.

The Mega dairy which will require an estimated sum of Rs. 100 crore would be helping in the production of all the milk products in the region, besides having Mega dairy, a plant also exists in Bangalore where all other dairy products are produced and are sent to the other places.

KMF is also having the objective of offering ice cream products to the domestic market through the planning of 10,000 liter ice cream unit, set up under Ballari Milk Federation.

Further Mr.Nagaraju told that a 250-capacity hostel be constructed sooner for the benefit of the employees in North Karnataka.

Apart from the requirement of 10,000 liter curd made from buffalo milk in Bengaluru,  the KMF had also outlined means for increasing the procurement of buffalo milk from 1.4 Lakh liters to a minimum of 12 Lakh Liters in the KMF unit in North Karnataka to keep pace with the increasing demand of buffalo milk in Bengaluru and South Karnataka.

KMF had also decided to implement the program for using maize for fodder production as the maize had become a major crop in the North Karnataka region. As such talks were already made with the Chief Minister to get approval for the purchasing of maize directly from the farmers for fodder production.

Encouragingly, the Federation would give Rs.2.5 lakh as grant for the setting up of milk cooperative societies and has the strategy towards the setting up of 50 to 100 cooperative milk societies in every taluk of North Karnataka. Interestingly, this Federation also sanctioned a Calf Nurturing Centre to Shahapur in Yadgir district, earmarking Rs,4 crore for the project ,where the calves purchased from the cattle market are being nurtured  and sold back to the farmer at subsidized rate to the farmers.

The KMC’s Nandini brand had also entered the Chennai market, thereby joining 32 private players who currently retail packed milk in Chennai. Intrinsically this was the first time a cooperative organization similar to Aavin had been selling its dairy products in Tamil Nadu from another state.

It has been cited by the Chennai representative of KMF, Anil Oomen that contrastingly, Nandini has been selling out its special toned milk priced at Rs. 36 per liter against Aavin which is retailing at Rs.32 per liter, containing 0.5% fatter than the regular toned milk especially for the Chennai market in Palaniappan. Despite Chennai required around 25 lakh liters of milk per day, Aavin had been selling only about 11.5 lakh liters.

Even though drought prevailed in the several parts of Karnataka, The KMF had ended up with a daily surplus of 22-25 lakh liters of milk last year. This was possible due to the eighty lakh dairy farmers who formed 13,000 odd milk cooperatives and 13 district unions for supplying up to 62.7 lakh liters of milk a day than 56 lakh liters during the flush season of 2013.

The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, who announced Rs.2 per liter of milk as an extra subsidy in his Budget in 2013 had compelled several farmers to become active milk producers. As result of which the KMF retailing its milk under the brand name Nandini disclosed Rs.9000 crore revenue and profits mounting upto Rs.70 crore in 2013-14.

For managing the increased milk procurement, the KMF has an in-house capacity to convert 10 lakh liters of milk into a powder per day. Alongside producing powder, they are also exporting milk to other states every day. Siddaramaiah had doubled the milk subsidy to producers from Rs.2 in the advent of the rise in the power of Congress.

Thought provokingly, following a spurt in the production of milk had approached to the Chief Minister with a proposal for offering this milk to the children at the Government Schools and Anganawadi centers. As such this initiative improved the nutritional deficiencies of the children who can get 150 ml of wholesome milk three days a week and also improved the attendance in such schools.

In a word it be concluded that the KMF besides expanding its milk production by implementing various ways, has also found out how to deal with the surplus milk.

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