Chitwan which contributes largely to the poultry production at home, has now become fully sufficient on milk production as well, a study shows.
The three-month-long joint study conducted by the Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Service Experts Center, Chitwan and Chitwan Milk Producers' Cooperatives Association came up with this encouraging finding.
According to Center Chief, Dr Bijay Shrestha, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recommended that an individual should consume 250 milliliters milk a day to stay healthy. It means that an individual should drink 91 liters of milk in a year.
The district in central Nepal is home to 625,000 population who need 156,000 liters of milk each day to meet the FAO recommendation. The district produces 290,000 liters of milk daily. The extra quantity is supplied to other districts, mainly to Kathmandu, then Kaski and neighboring districts.
The study shows the number of milking cows is 49,000 and among them, 10,000 are of local verities. Similarly, the number of hybrid buffaloes is 9,000. These data were collected by the Livestock Service Section at the local level.
According to Association chair Ratnamani Neupane, 104 milk cooperatives, out of 138 in the district, are active. He added that there was a potentiality that the production could go up by 50 per cent if the government support was received.
He claimed that Chitwan could meet the demand for milk throughout the country if certain measures were taken such as the development of cow and female calves breeding center, guarantee of accessible subsidized loan to farmers, sufficient grants, availability of vaccine for animals in need and so on.
A program has been scheduled here Wednesday to announce the district fully sufficient on milk production. Prior to this, Kavrepalanchowk was declared as the first district becoming self-sufficient on milk.
