Paralakhemundi: The Omfed dairy processing centre here has fallen into a state of disrepair. The facility, established to provide a stable market and incentives to local dairy farmers, has failed to meet its objectives and now lies neglected by the government, officials, and locals said.
Large portions of the equipment, worth several crores of rupees, are reportedly deteriorating due to prolonged nonuse.
The centre, which once processed around 10,000 litres of milk per day, now receives only about 100 litres, indicating a steep decline in both operations and farmer participation.
Moreover, taking advantage of the situation, private dairy firms in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have been collecting milk from farmers using the local collection facilities.
Owing to the lack of incentives from the Odisha government, the milk producers also prefer supplying their produce to the Andhra firms for better pay.
The processing plant was set up in 1993 by the state government through Omfed to promote dairy farming.
Alongside the processing unit, Omfed also built a milk collection centre at Kurulunda, about 10 km from Paralakhemundi, to support procurement.
However, in recent years, the Andhra Pradesh–based private company Visakha Dairy has been collecting milk from the area and using the state-built collection centre for its operations.
Locals allege that the Odisha government has failed to take note of this shift, even as the original Omfed infrastructure continues to gather dust.
Poor management has pushed the milk processing centre to the brink of collapse, with expensive machinery deteriorating due to a lack of maintenance, officials and farmers claimed.
The roof has weakened, and rust is now visible across several sections.
While farmers in the area supply about 15,000 litres of milk daily to two private dairies in Andhra Pradesh, Visakha Dairy and Heritage Dairy, they no longer want to bring their produce to the Odisha-run processing centre, which is currently managed by only two Class IV employees.
Local farmers R Raja Rao and Raghav Sahu said departmental negligence and apathy have left them without any incentive to continue supplying milk to the Odisha facility.
“Earlier, after quality testing, we used to get Rs 25, Rs 30 or Rs 36 per litre here.
Now Andhra dairies pay us much more— Rs 45, Rs 55 and even Rs 65 per litre depending on the quality,” they said.
Employees Mukund Kumbh and Prashant Kumar said the Paralakhemundi processing centre, which once handled nearly 10,000 litres of milk a day, now receives barely 100 litres.
When asked about the issue, Additional District Magistrate (In-Charge) Munindra Henega said he would look into the matter.
He acknowledged that farmers were shifting to Andhra Pradesh’s processing centres because of higher payments and said necessary steps would be taken after a review.