The Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) which did not pay the milk on time has conducted an unannounced 'milk holiday' to further harass the farmers. During the season of excessive milk production, DDC has started collection only on the basis of quota.

Ram Prasad Acharya, General Secretary of the Central Dairy Cooperative Association, said that the government institute had controlled the collection of milk and killed the farmers.

'Now is the season of milk production, but DDC has been collecting it by setting a quota. 10 to 15 percent of the milk produced has not been collected,' said Acharya, 'Government not collecting milk is an undeclared milk holiday.' It has also instructed that the projects will be held responsible if they collect more milk than the quota. After the instructions of the Centre, the projects have been collecting milk within the same quota. As a result, the milk produced by the farmers could not be sold, claims the General Secretary Acharya.

"It is the state's responsibility to collect the milk produced by the farmers, but they did not pay the money to the farmers on time and did not take the milk," he said.

The association has informed the attention of Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Ramnath Adhikari and Livestock Development Secretary Rajendra Mishra about the non-production of milk and the remaining arrears. He claims that the ministry has promised to remove the quota, but it has not been implemented. 'Just a week ago 

We informed the minister and the secretary, they also assured that the quota will be removed,'' General Secretary Acharya said, 'but, it has not been implemented.' Then the dry season begins. Dairies purchase milk during peak milk production season and make the powder. During the dry season, the market demand is met through powder.

According to a study by the Ministry of Agriculture, an average of 750,000 liters of milk is produced per day. 37 lakh 50 thousand liters can be consumed from house to house. The rest comes from the market. 20 to 30 percent more milk is produced because it is the season now. But the farmers allege that a 'milk holiday' has been done by imposing a quota on milk collection. 

"Since the milk production is decreasing due to the drought, now we have to collect sufficient quantity and make powder," says an employee of DDC, "However, the milk collection has been reduced because of the butter and powder balance. This will definitely discourage the farmers.

According to the quota set by DDC, 50,000 milk is being collected from the Kathmandu Milk Distribution Project, 15,000 from the Biratnagar Milk Distribution Project, and 3,000 from the Janakpur Milk Distribution Project. 

Up to 12,000 liters have been purchased from Hetaunda Milk Distribution Project, 12,000 from Lumbini Milk Distribution Project, 6,000 from Nepalgunj Milk Distribution Project and 4,000 liters from Dhangadhi Milk Distribution Project. From these distribution projects, a quota has been set to purchase 1 lakh 18 thousand liters of milk per day in January, 1 lakh 18 thousand liters in January, 1 lakh 2 thousand liters in February and 1 lakh 2 thousand liters in March.

'When the quota is imposed, there is a problem for the milk producers, the main problem is the payment, the farmers have sold the milk on credit,' says Panchkaji Shrestha, the president of the Federation of Farmers of Nepal, 'The farmers should get the dues immediately.' He said that he was in trouble. 

DDC collects milk from more than 46 districts including Kavre, Sindhupalchok, Ilam, Morang, Panchthar, Butwal, Kapilvastu, Taulihwa through about 1200 milk producer cooperatives. About 200,000 farmer families are involved in 1200 cooperatives. 

General Manager of DDC Surya Paudel says that the first priority is the regular milking farmers. "A purchase limit has been set so that the real farmers' milk does not go to waste, if the milk is not sold somewhere, the DDC will buy it," he said.

He claimed that the outstanding amount to be paid to the farmers is only 600 million. However, looking at the data of the DDC project, the outstanding amount is more than 700 million. According to the source, the arrears due to the farmers from the Kathmandu Milk Distribution Project is more than 35 crore rupees. Lumbini Milk Distribution Project has not paid the dues. Chief Yogendra Sah said that there are about 70 million dues from the Lumbini project. 

Biratnagar milk distribution project has not paid since June 16. Haridev Yadav, head of the collection branch, said that the amount owed to the farmers by the project is 180 million. Due to the sales problem, there was also a problem in the payment, the payment has been made from this project till May 15. Since May 16, there is arrears of around 180 million,' said Shah, 'We have collected within the quota.' 

According to Janakpur Milk Distribution Project Chief Dinesh Joshi, partial payment of August has been made from this project. About 1 crore was outstanding till October. Due amount has been added in November. 

Nepalgunj milk distribution project head Dilip Choudhary said that 17.0 million is yet to be paid in Nepalgunj area. He said that there is no problem in milk collection. "Even though the daily quota is 6,000, some days it is more than the quota and some days it is less, overall, the collection is according to the quota," he said.

Niranjan Bhattarai, the head of Dhangadhi Milk Distribution Project, said that there are about 20 million in arrears. He also said that it is being collected according to the quota.

We have given first priority to the milk of milking cooperatives even in the dry season. "We are trying to control the milkers only during the season of high production," he said. Hetaunda Milk Distribution Project Chief Rajeev Khanal said that the arrears to be paid to the farmers are around Rs 6 crore. In the case of milk collection, he said that there is no pressure due to Gadhimai Mela. 

After the unannounced 'milk holiday' by DDC, even private businessmen are preparing not to collect milk from farmers. They say that when DDC does not take milk, there is an unnatural pressure on private dairies.