Dairy farms in rural villages of Jhenaidah have been facing closure when the prices of fodder went higher in the markets in recent days comparative to the sale proceeds of the milk. In the other hand the prices of the cow milk fallen in the markets.
Want of adequate number of chilling centres and higher price of sugar were liable for the least price of the milk.
Abnormal rise in the price of sugar has been affecting the dairy farms as the sweetmeat producers have already reduced the production as they were not in a position to re-fix the price at a higher rate. The price of the milk is about 20 to 25 per cent more in the urban area than the rural areas, said some the dairy farm owners in Jhenaidah.
Nazma Khatun, a mother of two children said, she along with her husband Habibur Rahman of Habibpur village of Sailkupa upazila has been nursing 6 cows including two milching ones in her farm for couple of years. Two of the other pregnant cows are expecting delivery of kids within a few months.
Now the family has to spend Taka 900 daily for grass, straw, wheat dust and other fodders for the beats. But they hardly can receive Taka 650 to 700 from 26 to 28 kilograms of milk. Another dairy farm owner Mashiar Rahman Seikh of the village expressed almost same opinion. He said, he has been receiving Taka 1,200 to 1,300 from his 45 litres of milk a day produced by his three cows daily. He has to spend Taka 1,000 per day for the fodder purposes.
The farm owner showing an under-construction four-storied building said, he had started the construction work at his court yard with the sale proceeds of milk that he owned in past few years. But the work was stopped when the milk price fallen sharp in recent times.
Many of the farm owners already have sold a number of milching cows when they were incurring loss for months together, Mashiar said.
A number of the diary farm owners at Bishoykhali and Dakbangla in Jhenaidah Dar expressed the same saying there was no alternative except closing the farms.
When this correspondent visited a number of diary farms came to know that each litre of milk was selling between Taka 40 to 50 in district headquarters, while Taka 30 to 35 in upazila head quarters, and, the price came down at Taka 20 to 25 in the remote villages round the year, the locals said.
Chaitanya Karmaker, a restaurant owner at Kabirpur market in Jhenaidah said, he has reduced the production of sweetmeat to 50 percent as the price of sugar was set at Taka 70 to 72 a kilogram as against Taka 36. It was one of the reasons behind least demand of the milk, Chitanya said.
According to district livestock office sources in Jhenaidah, the number of dairy farms in the district was 543, where 58 thousand litres of milk was produced a day. The farm owners have been producing 11,400 tones of milk from 170 farms in Jhenaidah Sadar, 10,100 tones from 102 farms in Sailkupa, 8,100 tones from 18 farms in Harinakundu, 10,000 tones from 164 farms in Kaliganj, 8,000 tones from 40 farms in Kotchandpur and 10,300 tons from 49 dairy farms in Moheshpur upazila every year. The figure was shown as per the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) of the department.
But some of the dairy owners, sweetmeat producers and vendors said, the production of milk in the district would not be less than 90,000 a year as there are thousands of milching cows including the improved varieties those are not enlisted as farms.
District livestock officer (DLO) Jhenaidah when contacted said, they can not recognize the farm with two or three cows when the number of cows was less than 5 to 6 there. Further, the cows giving the milk below five litres are not considered as farms.
The DLO admitting the least price of the cow milk, especially in remote villages said, the farm owners in the area were worst sufferers as there was no chilling centre at their doorsteps. Only two chilling centres, one at Kaliganj and the remaining at Sailkupa was not enough to meet the demand of the dairy farm owners as well as common milk producers in the district.
The DLO gave emphasis on establishing at least two chilling centre in each upazila considering the production of the cow milk in the locality.
