The government took the initiative to meet the rising demands of milk amid increasing number of dairies and high-capacity powdered milk factories across the country.“
"Though the demand for milk is rising day by day, we are lacking improved breed of cows and buffaloes. So, we are preparing to import 50,000 vials of semen of improved breeds of cows such as Jersey, Holstein Frison and buffaloes such as Murrah to increase milk production," said Revati Man Shrestha, manager of Community Livestock Development Project funded by Asian Development Bank.
Sujal Dairy -- a major private sector player in dairy business - alone needs at least 80,000 liters of milk a day to run to its full capacity. However, it has been managing to collect just about 30,000 liters of milk. Likewise, Chitwan Dairy, another private dairy firm, is at the final stage of starting operation.
Shrestha informed that the semen would be imported from the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and India.
"About 48,000 vials of semen for cows will be imported from the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand and 2,000 vials of semen for buffaloes will be procured from India," added Shrestha.
Semen of improved breeds of cows and buffaloes cost as much $10 and $2 per vial respectively in international market.
Though the government has been administering artificial insemination from semen of over three dozen bulls and he-buffaloes specially raised in Pokhara, farmers have been complaining that the bulls and he-buffaloes are not of improved breeds. Farmers say such breeds yield only about 10 to 15 liters milk a day. About 90,000 cows and buffaloes are artificially inseminated every year from locally produced semen.
Shrestha said the productivity would increase to as much as 30 liters a day once the cows and buffaloes are inseminated with imported semen.
According to Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, daily milk production stands at around 1.5 liters a day from around 915,411 cows and 1.15 million buffaloes across the country.
"We can´t immediately increase milk production. The main objective of the artificial insemination program is to boost production and productivity of milk to meet rising demand of milk in the country," Shrestha added.
A few months ago, the MoAC had forwarded a proposal to procure over 20,000 cows and buffaloes from India to raise production of milk. However, the proposal couldn´t be approved due to lack of budget and legal constraints for importing cattle from the southern neighbor.
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