80,000 litres of milk thrown in drain in Kerala

Milk. (IANS Photo)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 1 (IANS): With Tamil Nadu stopping all incoming supplies of milk from the northern districts of Kerala, in Palakkad district on Wednesday around 80,000 litres of milk was poured into the drain by farmers.

"We have no other option but to pour the milk in the drains as all tea shops and restaurants are closed, besides Tamil Nadu has stopped all lorries coming with milk to their state, on the grounds of COVID-19, here," said a farmer, who was throwing out the milk collected from farmers in their milk society.

The majority of the milk societies in the state hand over the milk to the state owned MILMA.

The normal practise of MILMA is they carry the excess milk to nearby Tamil Nadu where there are plants which convert milk into milk powder.

However, in Kerala there is only one such plant, and that is not working.

Meanwhile the state government has started contacting some plants in Kerala where coconut are dried and according to those in the know of things, such plants can also do the conversion of milk into milk powder.

State Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunilkumar said that he will do the needful and see how best this can be done to bring some solace to the animal husbandry farmers, here.