CHANDIGARH, May 22 — “Tera Kya Hoga Kalia”? This has nothing to do with the famous dialogue from “Sholay” film. Here it is being used to describe the sword of Damocles hanging over the great Indian ‘kali’ (blackie) buffalo, the lifeline of Indian dairy farming.

In fact, this symbolic expression has been used by the Indian Dairy Association to alert 90 lakh members of dairy societies across the country that their beloved blackie (buffalo) is under attack from multi- national companies and their well wishers in the country.

India is the largest milk producer — 78 lakh tonnes per year in the world. Punjab has the largest per capita consumption (830 grams) of milk. Millions of families earn their livelihood by selling milk across the country.

Not only buffaloes and cows, but the entire dairy industry having a one-lakh-crore-rupee turnover in the form of milk and milk products has gone into a spin as a large quantity of imported butter oil and fat has invaded the Indian market.

Consequently the prices of milk products manufactured by the Indian dairy industry have started crashing. Verka desi ghee which was selling at Rs 142 per kg has come down to Rs 120 per kg. Prices of other brands of desi ghee have also come down. Informed official sources in the Milkfed department told TNS that no one was coming forward to buy desi ghee at Rs 90 per kg in bulk. Sensing a further crash in prices, stockists, who used to buy milk products from the Indian dairy industry have withdrawn from the scene for the moment. They are not ready to take the risk as a crash in prices continues.

Alarmed by the emerging situation, Punjab Milkfed, the Indian Dairy Association, the National Dairy Development Board and other cooperative bodies concerned have started informal discussions to take steps to save Indian dairy farming from collapsing.

While desi ghee and milk powder in the wholesale market was sold at Rs 122 and Rs 75, respectively by Milkfed in 1998-99, it fell to Rs 118 and Rs 65 per kg to the followings year. This year the average rate has so far remained Rs 103 per kg for desi ghee and Rs 65 for milk powder. Private milk plant owners have cut down on the production of milk products and also the price of milk. At present cooperative milk plants in Punjab have a stock of 2500 tonnes of milk powder and 3000 of desi ghee. Though it is a manageable stock but it will have adverse affect on the financial health of milk plants.

In the last financial year Milkfed earned Rs 16.50 crore less on milk products compared to 1998-99. And due to the accumulation of stock and the constant fall in price, earnings would further go down by Rs 10 crore or so. Moreover, as private milk companies have cut down on the purchase of milk from farmers, the supply of milk to the cooperative sector has increased by 40 per cent this year compared to last year. In fact states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are facing an identical situation.

Informed sources said at present cooperative milk plants in Punjab were buying about 8 lakh litres daily compared to last year’s figure of 6 lakh litres. Average milk supply to cooperative milk plants is expected to remain 8.5 lakh litres a day. In winter, the milk supply to cooperative milk plants even goes up to 12.50 lakh litres a day. It is the duty of the cooperative sector milk plants to lift milk from its member cooperative societies and protect the interests of milk producers even at the cost of suffering losses in Punjab.

Four lakh milk producers, including landless labourers and small and marginal farmers, from 6000 villages are members of 11 cooperative milk unions which run milk plants at Bathinda, Sangrur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Patiala and other places. The average price for 6.5 per cent fat provided by the cooperative milk unions is about Rs 10.40 as compared to Rs 9.57 last year. By buying milk through cooperative milk societies in villages, Milkfed protects milk producers from exploitation by private milk companies.

Though informal discussions have been going on among the Dairy Federation of India, the National Dairy Development Board, Punjab Milkfed and Indian Dairy Association, but these organisations have not lobbied jointly to make the Union Government impose excise duty on butter oil, fat and other milk products, the import of which has turned into a major threat to the Indian dairy industry.

Informed official sources said the Punjab Cooperation Minister, Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, had sought details from Milkfed with regard to the emerging situation in the dairy sector. He reportedly sounded the Punjab Chief Minister about the adverse fallout of import of milk products on Punjab’s dairy sector.

In fact, the collapse of Punjab’s dairy sector will shatter of Mr Badal’s dream. He is of the view that only dairy farming can pull out the farming community, by and large under heavy debt, from their deteriorating condition and also be a source of employment for rural youth.

The cooperative milk unions in Punjab want the imposition of at least 50 per cent anti-dumping duty on milk products coming from abroad.

With the removal of quantitative restrictions (QRs), there has been a rush for importing various items including milk products especially butter oil and fat in which the margin of profit is very high. Though the exact figures are not available but the Indian Dairy Association and other such organisations say that near 40,000-tonne of milk products have already landed in the country.

Commenting on the prevailing situation in the dairy sector, Mr Animesh Banerjee , President of the Indian Dairy Association, said the economics of dairying in India, contrary to the situation prevailing in the developed nations, is governed by milk fat. Its glut, because of the imports from European and other countries where it is available at a very cheap rate, has depressed the market to such an extent that milk prices have become unremunerative to the producers.

The new exim policy has sounded the death knell for the Indian dairy industry and the milk producers who were landless labours and small farmers, he added. As dairying in India started only five decades ago, it has got a very less period for growth compared to its competitors in the USA and European countries. Besides there is not much genetic improvement of milch animals.