Milk is bought at Rs 55 per liter and sold at Rs 100 per liter from the pocket area

Although the price of milk per liter in the market is 100 rupees, he has been selling milk at a lower price of 30 to 35 rupees per liter as he is unable to take it and sell it himself.

Similarly, another farmer of Darma Rural Municipality-5, 65-year-old Hiralal Khatri, rears two buffaloes and sells 7 liters of milk in the morning and 4 liters in the evening. Like Man Bahadur, he also sells milk to local cooperatives at 50 to 58 rupees per liter of fat.

Darma Rural Municipality-5 Dhakadam and 1 Darmakot are pocket areas of milk production. More than 2,000 farmers have been producing milk at home in a traditional manner and some have been producing milk professionally by registering a firm and rearing buffaloes. Recently, milk is being sold at 100 per liter in the market, but farmers are forced to sell it at 55 to 58 rupees per liter.

The farmers of Darma, who have been producing more than 3 lakh liters of milk every year, have been forced to sell milk at 55 rupees a liter depending on the local cooperative, which is acting as a middleman. Farmers have been buying the milk produced by the farmers at 55 rupees and selling it to dairymen at 70 rupees. Dairy has been selling to consumers at Rs 100.

Farmers who have been rearing buffaloes for years and selling milk are in the same situation as they are not getting the price. Farmers are complaining that they are able to raise the expenses of two weeks, while the cooperatives, which are playing the role of middlemen, are getting more benefits with little effort.

Dharma-5 Adherikhola farmer Pavitra KC says that according to the investment and effort of animal husbandry, they are not getting the price of milk. Buyers from outside do not come to the village. We do not have the capacity to sell outside . We are forced to sell to cooperatives," she said, "selling at 50 to 58 per liter makes it difficult to support a family now. Nothing has happened other than buying salt and oil with the money sold from milk. He says that even though the local and state governments have given a subsidy of Rs 8 per liter, there is not much relief.

Samir Neupane, livestock branch technician of Darma rural municipality Salyan, said that since there is no market nearby and the dairymen stopped coming directly to buy it as before, farmers are forced to sell milk to local cooperatives at a low price. He said that after buying from the farmer at 50 to 58 rupees, the cooperative is selling the derivative at 70 rupees. He complains that the Municipality and the Animal Hospital and Animal Services Office are not paying attention to market management.

Surendra Prakash KC, the president of the small cooperative organization located in Agarneta, said that since the milk produced by the farmers started to go to waste, they have been buying milk and selling it to the dairy to facilitate sales and distribution. He said that he buys milk from farmers on the basis of fat and it ranges from 50 to 58 per liter. He said that 200,000 liters of milk is purchased by the cooperative every year and provided to the dairy and the milk is consumed in the district headquarters Khalanga and Srinagar.

Information Officer of Animal Hospital and Animal Services Office Salyan Birendra KC said that the farmers could not get a reasonable price because there is no nearby market where all the milk produced in Darma can be consumed. He said that more than 19,000 metric tons of milk is produced in the district throughout the year, but more than 300,000 liters is produced in Darma alone. He said that most of the produced milk is being consumed in the market within the district.