Dairy farmers’ latest blow after pandemic: floods
Rajib Miah, a dairy farmer from Shahjadpur upazila in Sirajganj, thought the worst was behind him when the federal government lifted the countrywide shutdown on 30 May and was looking forward to recouping the losses brought on the pandemic.
But his hopes were dashed on one fateful night last month that saw floodwater submerge his cowshed.
He rushed to the shed and rescued his 18 cattle and took them to a street nearby. Since that time, the cows have made the road their homes.
Miah's perils didn't end there. As the protracted flooding inundated grazing lands, he was compelled to market two of the cows to feed all of those other cattle as his earnings from selling milk plummeted.
Now, he can't accumulate even half the quantity of milk he was used to as his cows aren't fed adequately.
"I have no idea how I would be able to recoup the losses so when everything would go back to normalcy," he told The Daily Star.
Miah isn't alone as a large number of farmers like him in the united states received the fresh blow of flood following the coronavirus.
Milking by Md Ripon and Md Rafiqul Islam in Chatmohar of Pabna, who've seven and four cows respectively, dropped 30 to 35 % in the last a month due to flooding.
Around half of the daily production of milk remained unsold for the first 8 weeks because the deadly virus arrived on the shores of Bangladesh in March.
Because of the closure of sweet shops, restaurants, hotels and schools and the countrywide movement control order, demand for milk nosedived between May and June.
Just when the demand was picking right up, on came the floods.
Photo: Palash Khan
Milk production averages 2.2 crore litres daily in Bangladesh. But because of floods, production transpired 25 %, according to industry insiders.
Processors buy 14 lakh litres and the others comes to sweet shops and households. Farmers sell milk to processors for Tk 35 to Tk 47 a litre.
Milk collected by Brac Dairy & Food Enterprise, which markets products under the Aarong Dairy brand, fell 25 per cent to at least one 1.1 lakh litres each day because of the floods.
Aarong Dairy's sales plummeted more than 40 per cent in May and June, said Mohammad Anisur Rahman, a director of Brac Dairy & Food Enterprise.
The floods inundated a lot more than 30 % of its 108 collection centres in Pabna, Sirajganj, Natore, Bogura and Kurigram.
At the beginning of the shutdown devote spot to tame coronavirus, Aarong Dairy bought about 1.7 lakh litres of the liquid each day, up from the average daily collection of 1.25 lakh litres.
But within two weeks, the milk processor, which includes 28,000 registered farmers, had to stop buying the extra milk after demand collapsed.
The company's storages were also overwhelmed by 1 lakh tonnes of UHT (ultra-high temperature) milk and 150 tonnes powdered milk, according to Rahman.
Photo: Palash Khan
Milk production by Akij Dairy, which sells beneath the Farm Fresh brand, halved to about 28,000 litres each day.
"The floods inundated the houses and farmhouses of dairy farmers. Almost all the grass fields, among the resources of cow feed, are now underwater," said Md Mosleh Uddin, chief executive officer of Akij Dairy.
In April and could, the sales of milk of Farm Fresh brand, which collects the liquid food through its 35 chilling centres from farmers mainly in Pabna, Sirajganj, Jashore, Khulna and Chapainawabganj, crashed 40 to 45 %.
"It has been a bad year for the dairy industry in Bangladesh up to now. Unless all educational institutions, hotels and restaurants reopen and everything returns on track, the downturn will continue," Mosleh Uddin said.
Prior to the floods, Pran Dairy used to accumulate 2 lakh litres of milk each day from its 12,000 registered farmers. Now, the procurement has dropped to 150,000 litres.
Most flood-hit areas for the brand are Shahjadpur and Baghabari of Sirajganj, where collection and chilling centres have almost gone out of operation.
"Despite all the difficulties created by the floods, our staff are likely to remote areas on rented boats or three-wheelers to acquire milk in order that farmers' sufferings ease," said Kamruzzaman Kamal, marketing director at Pran-RFL Group.
Milk collection by state-run Bangladesh Milk Producers Co-operative Union, popularly known as Milk Vita, in addition has decreased to about 1.10 lakh litres each day.
The company now sells about 90,000 litres daily. Prior to the natural disaster, it used to acquire a lot more than 1.5 lakh litres from 1.2 lakh farmers.
"Even following the shutdown, our milk collection was very good. However now the floods have brought down the collection significantly," said Omor Chan Bonik, managing director of Milk Vita, which increased the cost of milk by Tk 2 per litre to help farmers through the pandemic.
Milk production hasn't decreased much, said Mohammad Imran Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers' Association.
He continued to urge the milk processors to get more milk from farmers.
Kamal of Pran-RFL urged the federal government to expand its support for the sector by increasing the amount of veterinarians and other facilities.
"There is a high potential for attaining self-sufficiency in dairy production," he added.
