Loknath Poudel, who had started cattle farming with 25 cows, now has only three cows left in his shed. "They died because I was not able to feed them on time," he says. "The ones that are alive are also not giving the amount of milk as they used to before."
Today, more than 500 farmers in Bakdhuwa, Theliya and Jandaul, in Saptari district, are facing problems similar to Poudel´s. Bhuwan Acharya, president of Adarsha Milk Production Cooperative Center, established by local farmers some 15 years ago, tells myrepublica.com that most of the sheds in the three villages are getting empty as more and more cattle are dying due to the lack of feed. This is the first time these farmers are facing this kind of a challenge since they adopted cattle farming as their profession some 15 years ago, putting their only source of livelihood at stake.
According to Durga Dutta Adhikari, one cow needs one kilogram of chaukar, one kilogram of khuddhi and one kilogram of pina grains per day. "Since most of the farmers do not have enough cash in hand to buy all the feed in bulk, they stock up for a day or two and buy more feed whenever the need arises," he says. "But because of frequent bandas and strikes this is not possible now." That shortage, in turn, has affected milk collection in this area.
Adarsha Milk Production Cooperative Center, which used to collect 5,000 liters of milk every day earlier, now gets only 1,200 liters per day. The center is the third-largest milk producer in the country, after Chulachuli Milk Production Center in Ilam and Kavre Dairy Industry in Kavre.
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