Along with state-owned dairy producer -- Dairy Development Corporation, Chitawon Milk Ltd (CML) of Chitwan and Sujal Dairy of Pokhara, among others, have announced a number of incentives like arranging loans from financial institutions, providing free technical support and contributing on payment of interest on bank loans and premium for cattle insurance.[break]
Dairies firms, mainly the big ones, have been facing acute shortage of milk for the last few years due to low production amid rising demand for daily products.
Chitawon Milk Ltd (CML) has already organized farmers in Chitwan, Rupandehi and Nawalparasi into 76 co-operatives and offering them incentives to boost up milk production.
“We have imported 15,000 vials of semen for artificial insemination (AI) programs in Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Rupandehi districts to increase the number of high yielding cows,” Udaya Pandit, factory manager of the CML, told Republica.
Along with technical supports for farmers, CML is making final preparation to import 6,000 cows of improved breed from China on loan assistance from Manakamana Development Bank.
“We are also setting up a model farm with 50 cows near out factory and a fodder farm at Jhaharekhola of Nawalparasi to encourage our farmers,” Pandit added.
CML, in association with Chitwan District Co-operatives Office, also distributed 100,000 saplings of fodders to local dairy farmers. Though CML has an installed capacity of processing 150,000 liters of milk, the factory has been managing to collect only about 35,000 liters from local farmers.
Sujal Dairy, another leading dairy producer, has facilitated farmers in different districts in the western region to buy 790 cows of improved breed worth around Rs 60.5 million on loan assistance from Laxmi Bank. It is planning to facilitate farmers to purchase about 5,000 cows and buffalos this year to shore up milk production.
“We are bearing service charge for financial institutions and paying premium for cattle insurance to encourage farmers,” Niranjan Shrestha, managing director of Sujal Dairy, told Republica.
Though Sujal has the capacity of processing 100,000 liters of milk a day, it has been able to collect only about 45,000 liters of milk from the farmers.
DDC has also joined the race by arranging loans for farmers to boost milk production. Last year, DDC paid 4 percentage points of the interest that farmers pay to banks. Similarly, it paid 50 percent of premium on cattle insurance on behalf of the farmers.
Last year, Prime Commercial Bank, NMB Bank and Himalayan Bank had invested a total of Rs 80 million on cow farming in eight Tarai districts.
“Apart from our dairy enhancement program worth Rs 20 million, we have plans to extend the coverage of such support programs to 20 districts this year,” said Ajab Lal Yadav, general manager of DDC.
Ram Kumar Khadka, president of Private Dairies´ Association, said though the dairies across the county have the capacity of processing around 1.5 million liters a day, local production meets only half of the capacity.
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