Farmers chill out as milk no longer goes to waste

Milk holiday was a big problem to hundreds of Nepali farmers. After making a major collection, the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), frequently announces milk holiday, so milk producers cannot get their milk to market. Instead, they are compelled to distribute it to their neighbours and sometimes they feed it to the cattle.

Tilak Prasad Ghimire, a local farmer of Ambhanjyang village of Makwanpur district, had a bitter experience of milk holidays. He was forced to throw milk on the ground or feed it to cattle. Not only Tilak, but others also had no alternative to throwing milk during such holidays. The farmers were disappointed with DDC and were in search of alternative way to protect themselves from huge losses.

The scene changed as soon as Plan Nepal supported a chilling centre, which was established four years ago by some locals working with the Ambhanjyang Village Development Committee (VDC). As the centre can store 4,200 litres, more than 600 farmers are regularly providing milk to the centre these days. The centre collects 3,500 litres milk every day and sells it to DDC and other consumers.

With the chilling centre operating, none of the farmers face problems during milk holidays these days. The centre, running as a cooperative, has sole objective of providing maximum service to milk-producing farmers. The centre has also earned remarkable profit from its service, which the owners want to use to diversify into milk products.

Bidur Humagain, a member staff of the chilling centre, says, “Since we started collecting milk from the farmers, it has helped them in their regular income.”