Farmers to get reports on milk supply by SMS

VELLORE: For the first time in the State, the Vellore-Tiruvannamalai districts Cooperative Producers Union (known as Aavin) has introduced an innovative scheme to inform the milk supplying societies with details about the quantity, quality and procurement price of the milk through SMS alerts. The scheme was inaugurated by the district collector S Nagarajan, who is also the chairman of the union, on Friday here by sending the first SMS alert with details about the milk procured from Hyderpuram society.Of the 414 societies in Vellore district, the mobile alert system will be implemented for 30 societies on a pilot basis. This would benifit around 19,000 farmers attached to these societies. In Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts, there are 866 such societies. The aim of this project is to help farmers improve the milk quality and help them receive timely payment for their supply. “Sometimes if the milk quality goes below the standard norms, farmers had to pay penalty of Rs1.60 per litre. With the new system it is now possible to avoid such situations. If implemented in all the societies uniformly, farmers would be in a position to get their payment within 8 days,” Alex Jeevadhas, deputy registrar said.