Village sells milk worth Rs. 30 million

By Our Correspondent

Myagdi (Beni) Nov.1: Milk worth more than Rs. 30 million is sold annually from a single village in Myagdi.

Farmers of Beni Municipality-4, Singa village sell about 750 litres of milk daily through buffalo husbandry.

Young people who have returned from foreign employment and others have succeeded in earning good income by rearing buffalo commercially.

After getting a good income from selling milk, other farmers are also attracted towards animal husbandry.

Farmers have been attracted towards animal husbandry commercially since the programmes such as grants, concessions and training in the field of animal husbandry from local level and other government agencies started getting priority.

Farmers have been selling milk collectively by establishing agricultural cooperatives. Farmers of Baskuna, Paudel Chowk and Tatopani areas of Singa have been collectively selling milk in Beni for the past few years through agricultural cooperatives.

The cooperative collects milk from the farmers of the village on a daily basis. Farmers have been feeling relief since cooperatives have started buying milk, even if it is little.

Around 200 litres of milk is being collected daily by Baskuna Agricultural Cooperative, 200 litres by Shubhakamana Multi-Purpose Agricultural Cooperative and 300 litres by Simalchaur Biubijan and Agricultural Cooperative.

Kopilal Paudel of Paudel Chowk in Singa said he has been selling 40 to 50 litres milk a day. He said that he sells milk directly to consumers in Beni market. He said that he earns about Rs. 60,000 by deducting all expenses from the sale of milk every month. Paudel has two cows and seven milking buffaloes.

According to the cooperative, milk of 40 to 50 farmers is collected daily in the Shubhakamana Agricultural Cooperative in Singa.  There are 70 members of the cooperative and currently 40 to 50 people bring the milk to the cooperative.

Secretary of the cooperative Devendra Bahadur Baniya said that the milk collected by the cooperative is consumed in Beni.

"We have also taken a small quantity of milk from the farmers. Since the cooperative started to collect milk and deliver it to the market, the farmers have got a good price for milk," he said.

He said that the cooperative has installed milk analyser software to test the quality of the milk.

He said that the cooperative will buy pure milk at the rate of Rs. 100 per litre.

Baniya said that the quality of the milk brought by the farmers will be tested through the software and the price will be determined accordingly.

Chandra Bahadur KC, a farmer of Surkemela, said that they felt very comfortable after the cooperative started buying milk.

"There is no obligation to carry milk to the market. I give 13 to 15 litres of milk to the cooperative daily," he said.

According to the quality of the milk, the price is also good. After the end of the month, the amount is sent to the accounts by the cooperative.

Cooperative manager Deepak Sharma said that the milk brought by the farmers will be tested and recorded daily through software and the money will be sent to the farmer's account within 10th day of the next month.

According to him, milk worth more than Rs. 500,000 is sold monthly.

A milk collection centre has been established in the cooperative at Paudel Chowk for milk collection. The collected milk is taken to different dairies in Beni and sold by the cooperative.

Bhabi Lal Kandel, a member of Simalchaur Biubijan and Agricultural Cooperative at Tatopani, informed that 300 litres of milk is sold daily from the cooperative.