LAYYAH:The partial lockdown has badly affected the dairy farming in the district as milk prices have dropped by 50 per cent in the district.

Eight national and multinational packages milk companies were collecting milk from the district prior to the lockdwon.

Layyah has a total cattle population of 650,000, and of them 200,000 give milk. The district has a dozen commercial cattle farms besides many small dairy farms.

In normal days, the district produced 700,000 litres of milk daily, of which 300,000 litres is collected by the milk companies, says district livestock officer Dr Tariq Iqbal.

Before the partial lockdown, farmers were selling milk to private vendors and other people at Rs60-70 per litre, while companies would buy milk at Rs50-70 per litre. These vendors would use milk for tea at hotels and sell milk andyogurtat Rs100 per liter/kg to the public.

With the enforcement of lockdown, companies have cut their collection targets while the closure of tea stalls and sweet shops has also impacted the milk demand.

Farmer Faisal Jamal said milk producing companies were now buying milk at Rs40-42 per litre while confectioners were purchasing sour milk at Rs15 per litre, he added. Private vendors are buying milk at Rs35 to 40 and sell milk andyogurtat Rs60-70. He said instead of looking for the ways for the welfare of the farmers, milk companies started exploiting them.

“The farmers are only feeding their cattle on green fodder, andkhalas wheat husk was already short.Wanda, a factory-generated feed, is also short as the feed factories are closed,” says Chaudhry Samiullah, district president of the Farmers Association.

“Food authorities should check quality of sweets and bakery products as they are produced with substandard sour milk,” Faisal Jamal added.

Nearly 5,000 tea stalls closed in the district and they were also main consumers and buyers of milk. Also, 15 milk collection contractors and big firms have dropped their collection target too,” says Faisal Jamal.”During the Covid-19 pandemic, government, agencies and philanthropists are working to provide ration and supplies to the needy people but nobody is considering the welfare of cattle farmers. There is a dire need to support the dairy farmers otherwise the industry will suffer an unbearable loss and may not survive,” says Chaudhry Anwar Gujjar, a cattle farmer.

Two representatives of milk companies said their bosses had cut targets and because of excessive demands, prices had fallen.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020