The Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF), known by its brand name Milma, on Friday adopted a growth-oriented budget for 2023-24.
The Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) adopted the budget pegging the revenue at Rs 680.50 crore and expenditure at Rs 679.28 crore, anticipating a surplus of Rs 1.22 crore during the financial year.
The AGM, held at the KCMMF headquarters here, also adopted resolutions covering a wide range of key issues relating to the milk sector in the state, Milma said in a release.
The budget made allocations for Milma's cattle feed factories at Pattanakkad and Malampuzha, Central Products Dairy at Alappuzha and the headquarters expenses, besides making provisions to ensure remunerative returns to farmers and initiatives to step up productivity.
Milma Chairman, K S Mani, said the surplus budget will definitely help Milma achieve further growth overcoming the challenges on the way.
"The AGM also took an overview of the dairy scenario and came out with fruitful suggestions to strengthen the ecosystem by increasing productivity and attracting youths to dairy farming, besides identifying live issues that need to be addressed with the support of the state and central governments," Mani said.
The meeting sought financial assistance from the Central Government for cultivation of silage, green fodder and maize, inclusion of dairy farming under the purview of employment guarantee schemes.
The AGM, however, held that considering the sharp decline in procurement of milk, effective steps needed to be taken to improve productivity and reduce the input cost with the support of the government and allied agencies, besides launching schemes to attract the young generation to the dairy sector.
