Milk prices in the country have risen due to increase in the feed and fodder cost, Union Minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan said in Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Balyan, who is Minister of State of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said dairy companies pass on 75 per cent of the retail price to farmers. There is a need to balance between farmers and consumers. Farmers need to get higher returns on milk for them to take up dairy farming, he said.

In the recent time, there has been increase in the prices of feed and fodder due to which prices of milk have gone up. If fodder rates come down, automatically milk prices will also decline, the minister added.

Replying to another supplementary question, Balyan said three private firms are conducting trial of a vaccine developed by Hisar-based ICAR institute for the control of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) in cattle.

“The trial is underway. I am hopeful after the trial, the vaccine will be commercialised soon,” he added.

Milk prices have been hiked multiple times by leading suppliers in the last one year.