Farmers at receiving end
KATHMANDU, May 23: Dairy cooperatives in five districts have reduced milk collection from farmers, stating that dairy companies were not buying milk supplied by them.
Organizing a press meet in Kathmandu on Tuesday, Central Dairy Cooperative Association Ltd Nepal (CDCAN) informed that milk cooperatives have reduced collection from farmers in Ilam, Sunsari, Jhapa, Chitwan and Banke.
Speaking at the press meet, Narayan Prashad Devkota, chairman of the association, said that they had to reduce collection as diary companies are not buying all the milk collected by them. “It will affect farmers because as much as 50,000 liters of milk will remain unsold in a day,” he added.
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Unlike past years when dairy companies and cooperatives won't buy or collect milk at all during milk holidays, cooperatives are reducing collection quantity for certain days this time around. Siddha Bahadur Dairy Cooperatives Ltd, for example, is reducing collection by 25 percent once a week.
“We had to take the decision as milk collected from farmers remained unsold at our chilling centers,” Nir Kumar Padhan, a promoter of Siddha Bahadur Dairy Cooperatives Ltd, said in the press meet.
The cooperative has been collecting 3,000 liters of milk from farmers every day.
Milk holiday was last imposed in Fiscal Year 2009/10. It was first introduced in FY2000/01, stating that supply was much higher than demand in the market.
“Dairy companies are using powdered milk which is cheaper than fresh milk. It forced us to cut milk purchase from farmers,” Devkota said.
He further said that the government data shows there is a demand for 500,000 to 600,000 liters of milk per day.
“Farmers are doing their bits to make the country self reliant on milk. However, the government is not doing
the needful for finding market to milk produced by farmers,” he said, adding that the government should compensate farmers for milk that
remains unsold.
