Dairy Farmers in Ganderbal district of Central Kashmir, emptied their milk cans in drains citing losses due to increased supply of outside milk tankers in different parts of the valley, leaving them anguished.
On Saturday, dairy farmers were seen emptying their milk canes on the ground in Lar area of the district after they failed to sell it in the market. Some of the affected farmers say that people don’t buy milk from them anymore as they prefer packed milk.
“We don’t know the reason behind all this, but what we have observed is that scores of vehicles from outside enter into markets and supply the packed milk to shopkeepers,” said one of the dairy farmers.
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An elderly woman who runs a dairy farm told news agency Kashmir News Trust that she is not mulling to sell her cows as she is unable to sell the milk. “I can’t feed my cows anymore as it involves a lot of expenditure,” she said.
The milk producers of the district alleged that authorities didn’t respond despite taking up the matter with them. “We had gone to meet to DC Ganderbal who told us to get in touch with ADC but ADC concerned never met us and we left his office with gloomy faces,” they said.
They said that milk is being produced as usual but the people (consumers) who used to buy from us now prefer packed milk from markets.
There are many milk manufacturing companies in Kashmir that supply their pasteurized milk in pouch-packed to make it conveniently available to the consumers.
Some dairy farmers who sell open milk are often being accused of selling adulterated milk to consumers, as a result, they have lost credibility among people. On the other hand milk-producing companies claim that Pasteurized Milk meets the PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act) standards which aim to protect the public from poisonous and harmful foods, prevent the sale of substandard foods, and protect the interests of the consumers by eliminating fraudulent practices.
Will Look For Possible Markets For Milk Sellers
The Kashmiriyat spoke to the Animal Husbandry officer Ganderbal who said that the residents had come to him a few days ago after which the department has constituted a committee to investigate the entire issue.
“I recommended the formation of a dairy cooperative society in every area which will look into the possible avenues for the milk producers in the respective areas and also be responsible for finding suitable markets to these producers,” he said.
He said that there is no local market in Ganderbal for the milk sellers, however, we will look for possible markets in Srinagar and elsewhere. “We provide vehicles to them to transport vehicles from one place to the other,” he said. If they form the committees, the department also aims to provide cold storage to the local milk producers.
Regarding the import of milk from outside Kashmir, he said that the committee has not submitted its report yet. “We will only know the facts once the committee submits its final report,” the officer said.
(Featured image Shah Basit)