Lockdown woes of dairy farmers in Puri

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Puri: The worldwide coronavirus scare and subsequent government measures to tackle the situation have taken a toll on the livelihood of hundreds of dairy farmers in the district here.
The dairy farmers have been forced to go for distress sale of milk, cheese and other milk products due to low demand, sources said. According to sources, hundreds of families in Kakatpur, Nayahaat, Gop, Charichhak, Banguria and Konark areas of the district usually opt for dairy farming to earn a livelihood. They supply huge quantities of milk, cheese and other milk products to sweet and tea stalls in places like Bhubaneswar, Puri, Cuttack, Pahala, Pipli and Nimapara.
Besides, the Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (Omfed) and some private companies dealing in dairy products procure milk from the farmers of the district, sources added. It is learnt that around a thousand farmers in Kakatpur block produce at least 15,000 litres of milk per day while 800 dairy farmers of Astarang produce 10,000 litres of milk.
Similarly, around 1,500 dairy farmers in Gop block of Puri district usually supply 15,000 litres of milk to the market. “There are around 1,200 dairy farmers in Nimapara block and they produce 12,000 litres of milk on a daily basis. Besides, around 1,000 farmers of Pipli block supply at least 10,000 litres of milk to the market,” said a source.
However, all these dairy farmers have been facing problems to sell their milk and milk products for last several days as almost all sweet shops and tea stalls in Odisha have been shut down by the state government to check the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, the countrywide lockdown over the deadly virus and restrictions on vehicular traffic have prevented the dairy farmers to supply milk to any place, sources said.
“We supply huge quantities of milk and cheese to hotels and sweet stalls in Puri city. But, all these hotels and stalls have been closed down due to coronavirus scare. Now, we are facing problems to sell the milk and other dairy products. This lockdown has affected our livelihood,” said Sanatan Behera, a dairy farmer of Astarang.