Most of the smaller and medium scale dairy farm owners have been moving door to door to sale the produced milk during the strict lockdown, imposed throughout the country from July 1. They have been selling the same at Tk 25 to 30 which was almost Tk 50 before the lockdown was announcement.
Housewife Ranuka Saha and Mousumi Akter said they purchased a litre of the cow milk at Tk 20 from the farm owner staying at home, which used to sell at Tk 50 before the lockdown.
Small scale dairy farm owner Khokan Ghosh of Shastibar village in Shailkupa upazila when contacted during selling his milk at Kabirpur said, he procures 35 litres of milk in his farm daily. Now he moves throughout the villages and sale the same at 50 percent less price. He has been suffering badly to mange the cattle heads to purchase the fodder and other items for them, Khokan Ghosh said.
According to the office of the district livestock office in Jhenaidah, 539 listed and registered small and medium scale farms have been nursing 15,000 cows in commercial, basis. Further, the individuals have been nursing 525,861 milching cows including 182,200 crossed varieties of cows.
When contacted, district livestock officer (DLO) in Jhenaidah Dr. Ananda Kumar Adhikary said the demand of cow milk for every individual is 250 grams a day which stands 219 tones, while the farmers have been producing 238 tones. Additional 19 tones of milk is produced in the district.
DLO said the people of the area do not take required 250 grams of milk daily. As a result, the remaining quantity for 65 to 70 percent is consumed by the hotel-restaurants and sweetmeat producing factories daily.
They (district livestock office) had advised the farm owners and individuals to sale the milk in remote villages for survival during the strict lockdown imposed by the government to tackle the covid 19 pandemic. Six milk collection centres throughout the district have been collecting eight to ten tones of milk from the farm owners at a regular basis with fair prices, DLO informed.
