Addressing the 42nd anniversary of the state-owned dairy producer on Saturday, Ajab Lal Yadav, general manager of DDC, said setting up a new dairy processing plant within a year was a part of their plan to expanding processing capacity along with increasing production of milk. [break]
DDC´s existing plant at Lainchaur is failing to meet the rising demand for dairy products in the capital.
Yadav also said DDC has plans to provide chilling machines to 30 dairy co-operatives and automatic milk collection units to 50 co-operatives besides focusing on product diversification in close cooperation with dairy cooperatives in coming years.
He said DDC was also planning to install Ultra High Treatment (UHT) machine at its Butwal plant to increase processing capacity to 10,000 liters.
Speaking on the occasion, Nathu Prasad Chaudhary, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC), suggested dairy firms to come up with programs like artificial insemination and farming of improved breed of cattle to boost milk production in a bid to supplement the ever increasing demands for dairy products.
Though annual demand for dairy products has gone up by over 8 percent, production hovers around 4 percent.
Stating that production cost of milk in Nepal is 17 percent higher as compared to India, Chaudhary also suggested dairy farms to launch necessary campaigns to lower production cost.
Yadav also urged the government to review its four programs that aimed to raise milk production as they have failed to achieve the set objectives. He also suggested the government to declare dairy pocket areas near urban areas so as to cost transportation cost and ensure smooth supply of milk from farms.
The DDC boss also asked the government to devise special programs to boost milk production across the country so as to lessen mismatch between skyrocketing demands and slow rise in production.
He also drew the government attention towards acute shortage of milk to powdered milk factories, impact of climate change in the Himalayas because of which the number of Yaks in alpine farms is dwindling, triggering sharp drop in milk production.
The country is facing deficit of 376,000 liters of milk everyday, according to experts.
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