Dairying, which provided financial succour to farming families in Karnataka when it was gripped by severe agrarian crisis, appears to have lost its sheen in the last two years. The sector has become almost non-remunerative due to the double impact of escalation in cost of inputs on the one hand and reduction in procurement prices of milk on the other.
Thousands of youth from different walks of life, who returned to their native villages after losing jobs during COVID-19, had taken to dairying to rebuild their lives. What attracted them to it was the organised marketing structure provided through co-operative network by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) that has milk procurement units in almost all the major villages.
