Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 (IANS) Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) Monday decided to increase the price of government-supplied milk by Re.1. This is the fourth hike in the price of milk after the LDF government came to power two years ago.With this hike, the price of toned milk marketed through Milma (Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) will touch Rs.20 per litre. Milma is the state’s largest milk marketing agency.

The decision to hike the price was taken in an LDF meeting following the recommendation of the Milma directors’ board, demanding Rs.2 more per litre.

“Milma demanded the hike as the dairy farmers are facing problems due to rise in price of various inputs,” its chairman P.T. Gopalakurup told IANS.

Milma procures only 720,000 litres of milk a day from the state while it needs around 980,000 litres. “At present, we are purchasing around 250,000 litres from Karnataka to meet the demand,” he said.

According to Milma officials: “The price hike is expected to help farmers as they will get around Rs.15.58 per litre of milk against Rs.14.68 at present.”

Commenting on the price hike, a dairy farmer said the price hike would at least help prevent people from quitting the field.

“Lots of people have already quit dairying as it is not a profitable venture due to increase in the cost of inputs like cattle feed. Severe labour shortage is another problem facing farmers,” said Jose Scaria, a dairy farmer in Thiruvambadi in Kozhikode district.