Increasing milk production not enough to meet market demand

The domestic market has still some 500,000 litres of milk scarcity daily, according to the preliminary estimation.
"Though the number of cow and buffalo, and milk production witnessed increase in the current fiscal year, the domestic market is having scarcity of some 500,000 litres of milk daily and dependent on import," said spokesperson of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Dr Hari Dahal.
The country is going to witness an increase of 4.26 per cent of milk production to 1.62 million metric tonnes in the current fiscal year compared to the last fiscal year's 1.55 million metric tonnes, he said, adding that the number of cows and buffaloes have also increased but it could not be able to meet the market demand.
Similarly, the production of buffalo milk is more than double than the cow milk production. "The cow milk production is going to increase by 4.86 per cent to 468,913 metric tonnes and buffalo milk production is going to increase by 4.01 percent to 1.15 metric tonnes in the current fiscal year." he added.
Likewise, the number of milking cow is going to see an increase of 2.55 per cent to 998,962 this fiscal year from last fiscal year's 974,122, the ministry projected, adding that the number of milking buffaloes is also going to increase by 3.05 per cent to 1.33 million this fiscal year from last fiscal year's 1.29 million.
However, the increase in number of buffaloes and cows and milk production has not been able to meet the current market demand, Dahal said, adding that this fiscal year, the country is estimated to witness increase in livestock and meat production as well.
"The production of fowl is expected to see the highest growth of 12.85 per cent followed by laying hens (at 5.60 per cent) in the current fiscal year, whereas production of ducks, horses, and asses could witness negative growth," the ministry's preliminary data revealed.