LAHORE: The Dairy & Cattle Farmers’ Association (DCFA) and the Pakistan Cattle Feed Association (PCFA) have warned of cutting milk supplies to the cities across the country and shutting feed mills if the government doesn’t control feed input costs or enhance milk price.

The warning was given by DCFA president Shakir Umar Gujjar and PCFA chief Dr Arshad Zafar jointly told a press conference here on Sunday.

They said wheat, rice and other products were being exported without meeting domestic needs, leading to a whooping increase in the prices in the local market.

“The current wheat crop rate is Rs1,364 per 40kg while its by-product, bran, is being sold at Rs1,600 per 40kg. Nowhere in the world the price of a by-product of a crop is set more than half of the crop rate but here none is bothering to see who is milking whom and at what cost.”

Mr Gujjar and Mr Zafar said rice by-products, rice polish and stalk are being exported without meeting local requirements, leading to increasing in their prices in the local market and resultantly a raise in the production cost of cattle feed as well as milk.

They said as milk price capping was rendering the farmers bankrupt due to the difference between the cost of production and market rate.

They demanded the government either allow raising the retail milk price to Rs150 or control rates of the cattle feed inputs. Otherwise, they warned, they would close down the feed mills and cut supplies of milk to the urban centres. They won’t give a deadline for the strike.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020