The dairy farmers have said they are incurring a loss of Tk 57 crore daily as their products remain unsold due to ongoing shutdown for containing coronavirus pandemic. They have also sought financial help from the government and milk processing companies to tackle the situation. Presently, about 12 million people are dependent on the milk producing industry. Leaders of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA) recently said they have been experiencing a serious situation due to countrywide holidays declared to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Country’s dairy industry produces 9.9 million metric tons of milk annually which meets about 70 percent of the nation’s demand. But now it will have to face a monthly loss of Tk 1,710 crore. In normal days, five percent of the milk is purchased by the milk processing companies while 84 percent are sold to sweetmeat producers and household consumers. Now following the countrywide shutdown, most of their produced milk remains unsold.
In our country, dairying is a faster growing sector despite facing lots of problems of high input and low output prices. Usually, this situation leads to lower profitability in dairy farming. But now situation is absolutely different and more serious. The shutdown imposed by government has created a negative impact on its activities on the whole. Apart from selling produced milk, the farmers now will have to face problems for non-availability of feed resources and nutrition for the animals. Getting medical facilities available in this time will be another challenge for them. As diseases are the major constraint to dairy production in Bangladesh, the extent of overall losses due to ongoing crisis would be very high. It is understood crystal clear that most of the small-scale dairy owners will face hard time to keep their business running.
The government should take some emergency initiatives, including announcing an incentive package, to help the sector stay alive in this crisis situation.
