Man Bahadur Khadka of Surkhet Birendra Nagar-11 Charkune bought two Murra buffaloes from Rahmat Suppliers of Nepalgunj at a rate of 1 lakh 50 thousand rupees two years ago. He received a grant of Rs 75,000 per buffalo from the Directorate of Livestock Services of the Karnali State Government.

 Karnali state government brought 'milk promotion and animal feed development program' in the name of increasing milk production . Under this program, in 2075, the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives decided to give subsidies to farmers for the purchase of Murra buffaloes. Farmers were assured that the Murra buffalo would give many times more milk than the Raithane . Most of them sold the Raithane buffaloes of their herds when they brought a new murra . Thus, about 2,600 buffaloes and buffaloes were imported from 10 farms in 8 districts. About 34 million rupees were spent by buying buffaloes, stables and feeding management. However, this program of the provincial government was not successful.

Now, due to the government's policy, Raithane buffaloes have been removed from most of the farmers' barns . Murra buffaloes, which are said to give a lot of milk, are not able to give milk as per expectations, which has added to the suffering of the farmers . Man Bahadur says, "The Murra buffalo bought for one and a half lakh died in the first month". Others were unable to conceive a second time. Instead, our Raithane buffaloes have been good.' 

Murra gives less milk in the Himalayan and hilly areas. The shed for this buffalo must be warm and dry otherwise the buffalo will get sick . It is difficult to move a heavy body Murra on a hilly road .

The Murra buffalo bred in Haryana, India, is suitable for the lowlands . Murra buffaloes with suitable environment and good care really give more milk . However, after the buffaloes were taken to Dolpa, a hilly and high mountain district, some buffaloes died because they could not bear the cold. Head of Dolpa District Animal Services Office Dr. Sajan Rokaya says that Murra is not suitable for buffaloes because there are many steep lands and less grasslands in the high Himalayan and hilly areas. He said that if the feeding and care of Murra buffaloes is not good, the milk production will be low. Murra gives less milk in the Himalayan and hilly areas. The shed for this buffalo must be warm and dry otherwise the buffalo will get sick . It is difficult to move a heavy body Murra on a hilly road . "This is the result of planning without studying," Dr. Rokaya says, "Raithane buffaloes of the hilly areas are between 350 and 500 kg, but Murra is up to 700 kg." 

Buddhi Vick of Dolpa's Dolpa municipality-2 Locha bought a Murra buffalo by adding 35 thousand to the state government's subsidy of 75 thousand rupees. His buffalo, which he bought in July 2080, fell down and died less than five months later. Buddhi Vick says that 6 buffaloes of other farmers who were bought with him also died after falling from the herd. "It is neither rain nor winter here, it is difficult to save these buffaloes," Buddhi says, "If they are not kept warm in the shed in winter, they will die of cold." 

'We don't have much pasture, we have bare feet. How many days will you raise after feeding?' Regretfully, he says, 'Even five manas are not shed from the buffalo brought to give 20 liters of milk a day . We got a big cheat .' 

Farmers did not benefit from this program that lasted for five years. One is that the Murra buffaloes could not give milk as expected by the farmers in the first batch . After that there was no pregnancy . Farmers sold such buffaloes cheaply and sent them to the city.

Birendra Sarki, a farmer of Narayan Municipality-3 of Dailekh, says that he sold the Murra buffaloes brought by subsidy to businessmen of Nepalgunj within a few months. "I stopped giving milk, I couldn't take care of the bull, so I sold it," he said .

We brought the concept of Murra buffaloes because local buffaloes give less milk, for this there was no separate study - Kapil Prasad Upadhyay ,  The then head of Animal Development Directorate   Kapil Prasad Upadhyay Murra, then head of Animal Development Directorate, claims that the buffaloes were brought according to the demand of the farmers. "We have introduced the concept of Murra buffaloes because local buffaloes give less milk, but there was no separate study for this," says Upadhyay, "we discussed in the ministry, we took into account the demands of the farmers, and based on that, we decided on a subsidy program."

Some employees and buffalo seller farms have benefited from this program, which the state government has carried out without a feasibility study. It has been revealed that while purchasing buffaloes from the farmers, the employees of the Directorate of Livestock Development canceled the contract in the middle of stopping the payment if they did not purchase from the company. In the name of procedure, the farmers say that the staff of the directorate taxed them to purchase buffaloes only from certain farms outside Karnali. 

The Directorate of Livestock Development has approved a grant of 75 lakh rupees to Chhinchu Women Small Farmers Agricultural Cooperative Society of Veriganga Municipality-12 in Surkhet to purchase advanced breed (Murra) buffaloes for the farmers . KC Dairy and Cattle Breeding Pvt Ltd of Kailali was selected for the purchase of buffaloes. A group of farmers reached Kailali to get buffaloes.  Farmers who reached Kailali by renting two vehicles refused to buy after not seeing good buffaloes in the farm. The owner of the firm, Anita KC, informed the then Acting Director of the Directorate, Mohan Giri, that the farmers were not willing to buy buffaloes from her farm. President of the organization Uma Gautam says that Giri threatened to cancel the program after buffaloes were not bought from the said farm. 

"After seeing the old and spoiled buffaloes at the place designated by the directorate, the farmers got angry, we could not do the tax," says Gautam, "Then we went to another farm in Kailali, the farmers liked the buffaloes there, but in the end, the purchase was canceled." "The then Acting Director of the Directorate, Mohan Giri, said that the program has been cancelled, come back," she said. The farmers who reached Kailali after spending 2 lakhs of the organization returned free.

If we look at the data on the purchase and distribution of buffaloes across the state, it is clear that the first priority of the directorate is KC Dairy and Cattle Farm in Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City-3 of Kailali and Rahmat Suppliers in Banke . There are other cases where the directorate has canceled the grant agreement after not purchasing from these farms . KC Dairy has already sold 700 buffaloes in Karnali alone. "If the employee does not buy from the place, the program will be canceled in the middle," said Yamuna Sharma, the manager of the organization, "There is a setting between the owner and the employee of the buffalo firm."

Surkhet's Bheriganga Municipality-11 Ramghat Bheri Livestock and Agricultural Products Processing Cooperative Society purchased 50 Murra buffaloes for local farmers in 2078/79 with the help of 50 lakhs from the Directorate of Livestock Development. Farmers added 2.5 million to the subsidy of the directorate. Navraj Wali, the chairman of the cooperative, says, "Mohan Giri of the directorate stopped the payment for 6/7 months after the purchase of buffaloes from KC Dairy and Cattle Breeding Pvt Ltd of Kailali, which was appointed by the directorate." However, after about 6 months, the directorate paid . The owner of the farm, Kismat Ali, claims that he had to pay 7 lakh rupees to Mohan Giri, acting director of Animal Development Directorate, for selling buffaloes from Rahmat Suppliers in Nepalgunj. 

He said, 'Where do they buy buffaloes from our farm without understanding the price? How large is the setting in the purchase of a buffalo . They have collected 4 lakh rupees from my brother's check and also high quality Khasibo. Director Giri denies this allegation . He said, "I have not eaten even a single rupee, this is a completely false allegation". I have been accused because I have been in the same office for a long time.

The District Animal Services Office of Dailekh gave subsidies to farmers for the purchase of 568 Murra buffaloes and buffaloes from 2076/77 to 2080/81 . On the instructions of the office, 415 buffaloes were bought from Samim Farm in Kohalpur. 101 were purchased from KC Dairy and Cattle Breeding of Kailali, 32 from Bhim Bahadur Nepali of Achham and 32 from Bishnu Yadav of Nepalganj.

According to Bakhat Nepali, the president of Dailekh's 100% Progressive Agricultural Cooperative Society, many of these buffaloes are not in the farmer's sheds. In the agreement between the office and the farmer, it is mentioned that the farmer should keep those buffaloes for at least five years. However, it was sold within a few months as it was not suitable for the mountain climate, says Nepali. He said that after the production of milk was much less than expected, the farmers sold the buffaloes and some of them used them for meat. "We have repeatedly written letters to the district police office, district animal service office and the municipality to stop the sale and slaughter of buffaloes, but no one listened," he said.

According to him, the buffaloes bought with the subsidy were loaded on the truck and sent there from where they came from within a year. Someone cut it and ate it . Under this program, 896 buffaloes and 43 cows were purchased in only 6 financial years in Surkhet district. 8 crore 2 lakh 25 thousand rupees were spent for the purchase of those quadrupeds . Now most of the farmers don't have those buffaloes in their sheds . None of the government agencies have any data on where the buffaloes bought with the subsidy have gone. 

Buffaloes are smuggled into Chorbato

Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city-15 Piprahawa-based Rahmat Suppliers have sold 1000 buffaloes in Karnali province, it is mentioned in the Ministry's data . Ali Darzi, the owner of Rehmat, who has been awarded the contract to supply the subsidized buffalo, owns two farms – one is Rehmat Suppliers and the other is Abdul Bhairasi Palan Group . The buffaloes he sold in Surkhet range from 250,000 to 400,000. The tailor's firm that sent hundreds of buffaloes to Karnali now has only 5/7 of them. According to the order, he said that he was bringing buffaloes from Gorakhpur to Haryana in India. "There is a compulsion to bring them by stealth at the border, otherwise we have to pay a lot of revenue," he said.