Dairy farmers cry over spilt milk

Dejected by the short-sighted agriculture and dairy farming policies of PML-N government, hundreds of farmers belonging to Pakistan Kissan Ittehad drained out thousands of litres of milk in front of parliament building today. They farmers chanted anti government slogans and demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reconsider Finance Ministry’s policies for agriculture sector as they are destroying the dairy sector in the country.

Pakistan Kissan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar, while addressing the protesters, said that “milk being produced by millions of farmers was cheaper than the water being consumed by the industries”. He further said that farmers are unable to sell their milk at reasonable prices as the government has allowed the import of skimmed milk powder and whey powder in the country. Khokhar complained that the input costs of products have increased manifold and the government has failed to protect its farmers who have a vital role in ensuring food security of the country.

He said that before the budget was unveiled the import duty on skimmed milk powder and whey powder was 20 per cent for SAARC countries and 25 per cent for the rest of the world. He added that that instead of increasing the duty, the government decreased it by five per cent. He further said that unchecked import of dry milk powder in the country is hurting local dairy farmers they are unable to sell their milk to commercial milk buyers.

Pakistan is world’s third largest milk producing nation and the country has imported over Rs. 7.2 billion rupees (US$ 72 million) worth of skimmed milk powder from India over past five years. Khokar said that the import of skimmed milk and whey powder in Pakistan had jumped over the last decade. He pointed out that over the past three years, Pakistan had imported dry milk powder worth $341 million and the statistic is a direct result of governments lack of interest in dairy sector

He said that the government repeatedly gave examples of rising economies such as Turkey yet, its policies were short-sighted, at best. He remarked that Turkey  had imposed 180 per cent duty on dry milk powder import to protect its local dairy farmers and promoted its local dairy sector through incentives so that the country could become self sufficient in milk production.

He also lamented the imposition of 5 per cent GST on dry milk for calves, mineral mixtures and premixes in feed for cattle. He also said that the increase of current import duty for the said items from 5 per cent to 10 per cent would result in increased cost of production for cattle breeders and dairy farmers who are already burdened by high cost of production. Government, through Finance Bill 2015, is also planning to impose 5% GST on cattle feed which was zero percent until now.

“The current government is bent on destroying dairy sector of the country even though it contributes up to 55 per cent in overall agriculture output of the country. The federal government believes that urban development is the only solution of country’s problems and they are ignoring 70 per cent population that earns livelihood through agricultural and dairy production. “Our government is planning to convert Pakistan into a dry milk powder dependent country as opposed to becoming self-sufficient in milk production,” he protested.