ISLAMABAD: Dairy farmers have decided to raise the price of milk by Rs25 per litre taking its cost to Rs165-170 per litre from next week.

However, the decision is yet to receive the consent of the relevant authorities in both Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

“We have had meetings with the district administration of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and apprised them of our concerns,” said Bashir Ahmed Noon, patron Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association (DCFA), Islamabad chapter.

At a meeting held here on Thursday, the DCFA decided that the rate of milk at cattle pen will be Rs150 per litre and the retail rate will be around Rs165 per litre. Open milk sold in the twin cities is a combination of both cow and buffalo milk.

The DCFA meeting noted that the input cost had increased manifold and criticised the authorities for not doing anything to enhance milk production in the country.

Talking to Dawn, DCFA office-bearers said despite several attempts the government had not devised any plan to boost milk production, and this included conducive policies for maintaining the input cost.

“I am not talking about the other inflationary impacts such as rising cost of electricity and fuel, but the direct input for cattle has led to this decision to increase the prices,” said Chaudhry Rafaqat Hussain, the president of DCFA Islamabad.

The list of the rising input cost has also been presented to the officials of Punjab Food Authority, he added.

It said the cost of one bag of feed of 40 kg had been increased three times in May to Rs2,800 from Rs2,400. The dry bread (roti), a key food for cattle, was around Rs60 per kg which used to drop to Rs35-40 during summer months.

Straw price has reached Rs700 per 40 kg, which used to be around Rs500 in the summer, green fodder was around Rs450 per 40 kg against the traditional rate of Rs300 in the summer, chowkar around Rs1,500 per 27 kg which was less than Rs1,000 three months back.

“We compare the rates of many items between winter and summer months because there is a holistic budgeting of the complete year,” Mr Hussain said, adding: “We have discussed the rates of medicines and food supplements such as calcium which have increased significantly too.”

The DCFA had increased the milk rates in November 2021 from Rs110 to Rs130 per litre.

While there is no official data available, the DCFA estimates that up to one million litres milk is consumed in the twin cities daily with the local production amounting to only 200,000 litres, and the major share coming from other areas of Punjab, mainly Sargodha division.

The DCFA Islamabad president said northern Punjab and AJK were not primarily agricultural areas and the growing urbanisation had further declined the milk production in these areas.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2022