KATHMANDU, Sept 2: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) to submit a proposal to the Cabinet for a loan investment of Rs 600 million in the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) with certain conditions. The DDC can use this amount to pay the remaining amount of milk to the farmers for the time being.
For the current fiscal year, the budget has arranged Rs 10 million in loans for the DDC, and it has been agreed to submit a proposal to the Cabinet to transfer an additional amount of Rs 590 Million from the allocated amount to the MoALD and make a total loan investment of Rs 600 million.
DDC must reform to address farmers' plight
The farmers have been demanding the payment for the milk they have supplied to the DDC. Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Ramnath Adhikari, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, and officials of the DDC have held discussions for many times on the issue of paying the dues of the milk farmers.
MoF pays Rs 390 to dairy farmers
Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Ramnath Adhikari, after initiating efforts with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, has received agreement from the Ministry of Finance to release the remaining funds to dairy farmers under certain conditions. When Adhikari took charge of the ministry on July 15, there was an outstanding amount of Rs 1.54 billion owed to dairy farmers.
After sending Under Secretary Surya Paudel to oversee the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) earned over Rs 390 million from the sale of butter and powdered milk. By August 31, the funds had been distributed to the farmers.
