Pune: Katraj Dairy has appealed to the Maharashtra State Government to ask people to consume turmeric milk for better immunity. The move has come after the sale of milk has reduced owing to the lockdown, and farmers are getting affected since they were unable to fetch good rates.

The dairy has written a letter to the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar stating that the consumption of milk has reduced drastically during the lockdown especially the new lockdown rules as it was not possible to sale in two hours. The prices of butter and skimmed milk powder have also reduced, and therefore it is difficult to use the surplus amount of milk. This has hampered the entire dairy industry while farmers are not getting reasonable rates.

The letter further states that every citizen of the state should be encouraged to consume 150 Ml of turmeric milk in the morning as well as in the evening. This will help in improving the immunity of the people, and they will be able to face this health emergency more strongly.

Also Read: Coronavirus Pune: Revised lockdown rules disrupt milk distribution

Dr Vivek Kshirsagar, Managing director, Katraj dairy, expresses that if the idea of increasing the milk consumption will be promoted among the society, the whole cycle of the economy, i.e. rural and urban will improve as an increase in demand will help to get good rates for the farmers.

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The milk supply remains disrupted in several pockets of Pune. The dairies mentioned that the disturbance in the amount is due to restricted timings for retailers shops which were 10 am to 12 pm. At the same time, the delivery time for the milk is morning 6 to 8. It is likely that in the coming days of the coronavirus lockdown, the supply of milk will remain affected.

Dr Kshirsagar had earlier said, "Since it is summertime and these retail shops do not have enough infrastructure to store the milk for another four or five hours, they usually do not take the same amount of milk as earlier. Secondly, due to the restricted timings, it becomes more difficult to deliver to the retails shops in some areas. 

The overall demand for milk has reduced to 30 per cent since the coronavirus lockdown as many restaurants, café and sweet shops are closed. With new lockdown orders, the demand for milk has further reduced by 10 per cent."