MULTAN, July 18: Milk production has dropped owing to severe heat spell hitting the province in the last couple of weeks and resulting in drought and fodder shortage. This has compelled livestock owners to increase the prices by around 15 per cent adding to the woes of inflation-stricken masses.

Despite increase in prices, consumers are finding it very hard to purchase the required quantity of milk because there is shortage of milk supply to urban areas from riverine areas.

Floods in the riverine areas, that are rich source of milk production, have forced the livestock owners to shift their cattle to plain areas where, to their sheer disappointment, drought coupled with fodder shortage is prevailing.

As per the estimates, over 50 per cent milk is supplied from the riverine areas of Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Jhang and Layyah districts located across Chenab and Indus rivers to the urban localities in south Punjab. All these factors led to the increase in milk price from Rs35 to Rs40.

The weather conditions are also affecting the health of livestock. Acute shortage of green and dry fodder, which is also supplied mostly from the river belt, is leaving animals underfed, hampering with their faculties to produce more milk.

Commenting on the situation, livestock consultant Dr Sajjad Husain said fluctuation in the summer spell was common, but this year it dropped to significant level, which was uncommon and unusual.

He said the acute and unexpected shortage of fodder, particularly that of green fodder, during current months was affecting the productivity of animals even having good pedigree record.

He advised livestock farmers to use cottonseed though it was bit expensive but would enhance the productivity. He also advised them to keep the animals under shadow, avoid their direct exposure to sunlight besides bathing them at least thrice a day.Abdul Hameed, a livestock farmer, said he had shifted along with his cattle to the periphery of Layyah after a low-level flood in the Indus as floods had washed out his crops and his husk stock.

He said the productivity of his cattle had also dropped owing to non-availability of daily ration as per their requirement and intake.

Javed Ahmad, who sells milk on Purana Shujaabad Road, said they were getting low-quantity milk against increasing demands owing to its utilisation in yoghurt, buttermilk and ice cream.

He said the pricing mechanism was beyond their control and they were hardly earning Rs2 to Rs3 per litre. He said they had paid huge chunks of money to livestock farmers in advance to get the uninterrupted supply of milk, especially in the summers.

Abdul Rashid, a consumer, said with the hike in prices of petroleum products and other commodities, the prices of milk also went up, but the government seemed indifferent, like it was responding to all other issues it was facing nowadays, to provide relief to the masses.