Lockdown hits hard on dairy farmers
Source: The Sangai Express
Thoubal, April 01 2020:
Dairy farmers in Tekcham area, Thoubal district are bearing the brunt of Nationwide lockdown as numbers of milk buyers have reduced considerably.
While putting forth their issue, one of the dairy farmers of Tekcham area maintained that there is around 200 jersey (a breed of small dairy cattle ) and each of them can produce 25 to 30 litres of milk per day.
As dairy firms such as YVU, Thoubal and Lamjingba procured milk from the dairy farmers regularly, the farmers used to earn as much as Rs 60,000 a day but with the imposition of lockdown, the farmers are incurring a huge loss in their businesses, he asserted.
As there is no proper channel to distribute the milk, the farmers are subjected to sell them at a low cost to a handful of customers or near and dear ones, the farmer said.
There is also no facility to convert the bulk of milk into other products such as curd, cheese, butter etc, he said, appealing the authorities concerned to look into the matter at the earliest and allow firms and companies to procure their product as usual.
The lockdown was imposed in the wake of the outbreak of disease caused by novel coronavirus COVID-19 .