Farmers body threatens to resign over cattle feed rates

Ponda: Protesting the hike in cattle feed rates, the entire panel of directors of the Goan Seed Farmers Produce Organisation has threatened to resign. The directors had even tendered their resignations to Goa Dairy. However, after an assurance from dairy officials, they agreed to defer their move to Monday, milk farmers said.

After the closure of Mharvasaddo, Usgao- based cattle feed plant of the Goa State Cooperative Milk Union (Goa Dairy), an FPO (Farmers Produce Organisation) called Goan Seed Farmers Produce Organisation was formed under the direction of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to make cattle feed available to farmers at subsidised rates.

The organisation must procure cattle feed from NDDB-empaneled distributors and supply it to farmers of Goa Dairy, Sanjiv Kunkalienkar, a farmer from Mardol, said.

“However, the dairy has recently hiked the rates of cattle feed by Rs 4 per kg. A bag of 50kg has been hiked to Rs 1,725 from Rs 1,525 in just four months,” Kunkalienkar said.

Cattle feed in the form of nutritional pellets consisting of maize and a mix of minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium are given to milking animals.

One animal needs around 7kg of such feed per day in addition to normal fodder, he said.

The directors, including chairman Vaibhav Parab and members Pramod Sidhaye, Uday Prabhu, Jyotiba Ghevde, and Aadinath Parab have offered to resign.