Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, May 30: The dairy farmers are staring at huge losses for the second consecutive year as demand has fallen by 50 percent due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The farmers, including many youngsters who have taken up the business of dairy farming have sought relief from the Government to save the industry from collapse and warned of large-scale unemployment if immediate measures are not taken.
“I used to sell around 1500 liters of milk before the lockdown. Now I am selling mere 500 liters and throw away the rest,” Bilal Ahamad, a farmer said, adding that the Government should provide us relief to sustain in these trying times.
The impact of the pandemic can be seen at the Industrial Estate Lasipora in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, considered the highest milk producing area in the Valley, where dairy farmers are forced to throw away half of their milk due to a slump in demand.
As the processing plants refuse to buy milk, the farm owners are finding it hard to run their farms. “Every day we spent around Rs 300-400 on fodder. We have bought cows after taking a loan from the bank, so we have to take care of interest as well,” Arif Rasheed, a dairy farmer said, adding that the money to run the farm comes from selling milk, but around 60% of sales have dropped since last year.
The milk processing unitholders, however, said the demand has dropped sharply and they cannot store milk beyond their capacity. “We can take milk as per the demand. The demand has reduced as tea stalls, hotels, and restaurants are closed. The distributors are also facing difficulty to drop the milk in the markets,” a unit holder said.
While divulging details, he added, they used to buy around 20,000 liters of milk before lockdown. “We don’t even buy half of that these days. We cannot go to the market. We are trying to take maximum milk from farmers and covering as much market as possible,” he said.
He said that the entire supply chain has been hit, and that has affected the livelihood of people involved at different stages. “From farmers to collectors to distributors, all have taken a hit,” he said.
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