30 Crores of Artha to pay arrears of dairy products to farmers

Finance Minister Varshman Pun on Friday directed the high officials of the Ministry along with Revenue Secretary Ram Prasad Ghimire to immediately proceed with the process of payment of farmers. Before giving the instructions, Finance Minister Pun had a discussion with Agriculture Minister Jwalakumari Sah, Agriculture Secretary Govinda Prasad Sharma and Livestock Development Secretary Revathiraman Paudel . After that, he instructed to proceed with the payment process .

Secretary Paudel said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been sending letters to the Ministry of Finance for the payment of dairy products. He said that the letter was sent again after the finance minister said that he would give subsidized loans in a meeting held by the finance minister and the agriculture minister again on Friday. "Initially, there was confusion as to where the budget would be released," said Paudel, "The Ministry of Agriculture sent a letter to Artha mentioning the unspent budget." Paudel said that after the Ministry of Agriculture sent a letter, the Ministry of Finance has already started the process to provide funds.

According to farmer-related organizations, farmers are yet to receive payment of about 7 billion from private dairy and DDC. Uddhav Adhikari, the founder president of Farmers Group Federation of Nepal, said that although the private dairies claim that payment will be made by Chait 21, there is no positive sign. DDC has been collecting milk from 1,200 dairy producers every day. About 200,000 families are affiliated to that organization. DDC has been saying that it has not been able to pay the farmers on time due to the suspension of working capital.

'The working capital of 1 billion 20 crores has been stopped with powdered milk and butter . The dry season starts from Baisakh. At that time, we expect that the remaining milk will be sold,'' General Manager Jha said, 'Then we can give the amount to be paid to the farmers . We are ready to give priority to regular farmers.'

General Manager of DDC Jha said that 8,000 liters of milk is collected daily in Biratnagar area. When private dairies do not collect, DDC is forced to collect 20,000 liters of milk a day. In the case of Jhapa, it is said that there is an obligation to collect 6/7 thousand liters in the place where 2000 liters are collected per day. "In Viratnagar and Jhapa areas, about 15 million rupees are due," Jha said.

Farmers are struggling for a long time saying that they are not getting money for the milk they sell. They also held a protest program from February 10 to 21. Although the Ministry of Agriculture has agreed on five points with the farmers to stop the farmers' movement, the farmers have not yet received the payment . Apart from private dairies, the government-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) has to pay about 150 billion.

DDC, which is still paying the farmers, has earned more than 50 million profit in the 6 months of the current financial year . DDC has earned 5 crore 1.5 million net profit from 1st July 080 to mid-December. In the last financial year, it is mentioned that 488.5 million was in net loss . Earned 1 billion 94 crore 49 lakh rupees in 6 months . Last year, DDC earned 3 billion 656 million rupees.

'Now the main factor for going to profit is the improvement in the quality of raw milk received from the farmers . In the past, milk used to come with 7.2 to 7.5 SNF . At present, the quality of milk of 3 fat and 8 SNF has arrived in the market," General Manager Sanjeev Jha said, "DDC was at a loss due to the necessity of mixing powdered milk to improve the quality when milk of substandard quality came, but after 5 years, we have made a profit. Now there is a gradual improvement.'

DDC claims that the cost of production has also improved as quality milk comes from farmers. Jha says that he will mix SNF which costs 700 per kg to reach 8 SNF. This increased production cost and increased losses. Apart from this, DDC claims that internal expenses have been reduced, overtime reduction and fuel maintenance expenses have been controlled. "In the past, the profit from Balaju plant was 12/13 crores, but now it has reached 320 crores . This has made up for the loss of other plants,' said Jha.

According to DDC, 4 billion 15 million 18 million was spent last year, but now 1 billion 88 million 77 million rupees have been spent in 6 months . This is the reason why DDC, which had a loss of 48 crores last year, has made a net profit of 50 crores in 6 months of this year. "The improvement in operating expenses has made the institute profitable," he said. Although DDC has shown the estimated profit and loss statement of net profit, the farmers have not yet received Rs 1.15 billion.

Most of the problems are seen in Biratnagar, Jhapa and other areas. Farmers there have not received payment since last August. "When DDC gives first priority to the farmers in the payment, the farmers of the outer districts have seen a lot of problems. The farmers who are close to the origin get the first priority,'' said the founding president of the Federation of Farmers' Federation of Nepal.