Dairy farmers, bizmen rue govt apathy

Mahesh Sharma

Mandi Ahmedgarh, June 1

On World Milk Day, dairy farmers and milk entrepreneurs alleged that successive governments have failed to address their recurrent problems and forcing them to close down their ventures, normally run by availing institutional loans.

While some of the dairy farmers have closed down their ventures many more have made up their minds to sell their cattle and infrastructure. Same is true for traders dealing in milk and milk products, as they feel unable to meet vagaries of the Food Safety Department on pretext of repeated samplings and checkings.

Dairy farmers led by Dr Ravinder Sharma of Chhanna Road Ahmedgarh, Bhupinder Singh of Naromajra and Kamal Singh of Latala regretted that no government official came to their rescue when their cows and buffaloes fell prey to the foot and mouth disease recently. “Besides suffering loss of over Rs 20 lakh, I am still bearing recurrent loss due to fall in yield,” said Dr Ravinder Sharma. Hundreds of cows and buffaloes were killed due to the government’s failure to provide vaccines to dairy farmers of the region.

At least three farms, owned by Bagga Singh, Parminder Singh and Jyoti, were closed down at Jandali village as none of the officials from the Animal Husbandry Department came to their rescue. Unlike earlier times when dairy farming used to be a normal occupation, a lot of infrastructure and expertise is required to run the business now. Machinery and sheds worth lakhs, besides hundreds of animals are waiting for their prospective customers.

Uncontrolled rise in prices of cattle feed, veterinary medicines, vaccines, fodder and insurance rate were cited as major factors behind the alleged failure of the milk production business.

Deepak Sharma, an office bearer of Milk Product Dealers Association, lamented that officials in the Food Safety Department, instead of guiding the entrepreneurs for streamlining their profession had been harassing them by frequent conduct of raids and samplings, even though earlier samples proved of desired quality.

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