Chitwan, October 27

Dairy farmers in Chitwan are having a difficult time as collection centres have stopped collecting milk citing the fuel crisis.

The district produces approximately 225,000 litres of milk everyday, but these collection centres have been collecting only 100,000 litres due to the fuel crisis.

“As the collection centres have been collecting milk on a rotational basis, around 125,000 litres of milk has been going to waste,” lamented Ananda Nyore, a daily farmer in Bharatpur, adding, “How can we feed our cattle if the milk we produce goes unsold like this?”

Chairperson of District Milk Producers’ Cooperatives Association, Chitwan, Harihar Subedi put the estimated loss at over Rs 6 million daily.

According to the district livestock office, there are 138 dairy industries and 200 private milk farmers in the district. “There are around 140,000 cattle kept for milk in the farms,” said Dr Ram Kumar Karki, chief of the livestock office.

DMPCA Chitwan vice-chairperson Balkrishna Upreti said the fuel crisis had hit them hard. “How can we continue to operate our businesses when on the one hand the prices of fodders are going up and on the other our milk is not sold?” he questioned.

Proprietor of Vision Dairy, Sureshchandra Adhikari, admitted that they had not been able to collect milk from the farmers due to fuel shortage.

Sitaram Dairy, Diary Development Corporation, Sujal Foods, among others, are the ones that buy milk from the collectors in Chitwan.