Kathmandu, May 1:The National Dairy Development Board has requested all the sides concerned to immediately cancel their scheduled programmes for relay hunger strike, sit-in protests and other such protest programmes saying these programmes of the Central Dairy Producers’ Cooperatives Association seem irrelevant in the context of the Dairy Development Board running various welfare programmes in favour of the dairy farmers.
In a press release issued by the board, it is said that discussions were being held for recommending an appropriate purchase and sales price of milk on the basis of evaluation and analysis of the current market price of milk.
It said measures were being taken for resolving the present problem regarding lactometres after studying the problem, arrangements were being worked out for keeping five elected members from the Central Dairy Producers Cooperatives Association in the board of directors of the National Dairy Development Board as against the present four members.
Similarly, it said tangible efforts were being made to terminate the provision of “milk holiday” within the next year by increasing the local milk consumption and works on restructuring the Pokhara Milk Distribution Project with main participation of the dairy producers’ association was in the final phase of its completion.
According to the press release, plans were also afoot for the gradual restructuring of the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) according to the principles of cooperatives and works on the construction of a milk processing factory in Kohalpur of the mid-west development region would commence by the middle of this month.
Likewise, work on gradually handing over the milk chilling centres under the Dairy Development Corporation to the dairy cooperatives institutions has been started in connection with the restructuring of the corporation, the board said.
Fodder grass and pasture development programme and other such programmes were also being undertaken in an attempt to reduce the production cost of milk, according to the press release.