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| Say cheese, it’s not there; milk too goes scarce | | Jammu faced with acute milk shortage, experts say it is phenomenal | | Early Times report
Jammu, Aug 11: The City of Temples and its peripheral areas are these days faced with a different kind of ‘famine’ –while the milk products, significant among them cheese, has almost completely disappeared from the vends, the town is reeling under acute shortage of milk.
It sounds ludicrous but the fact is that people are picking up even petty fights to have their piece of cheese. The problem is akin to the one prevailed few years back when onion shortage hit most of the country. A couple of days back at a milk shop in Tallab Tillo area of City, two customers of cheese fought each other for one kilogram merely. For the rest of city all the milk vendors hardly are able to cater the customers of milk and the availability of curd, cheese and other by products has become almost a luxury.
Director Animal Husbandry Jammu YV Gupta admitted acute shortage of milk but said that there is nothing sudden. “This is outcome of a phenomenon”, said Gupta as he elaborated: “grass and other cattle fodder is getting scarce due to urbanization, the cattle rearers have been following wrong methods of insemination which resulted in decline in quality and quantity”.
It is not for the first time when the shortage of milk and milk by products is felt in Jammu city but for the last more than twenty years with huge influx of population due to migration of people from across the state, has put city of temples in great demand of milk and milk products for the summers season particularly in May, June, July and August.
Secondly, the quantity of milk produced in villages, which is main sources of supply of milk, did not reach to city due to festivals and the whole produce is being consumed by the sweet makers (Halwai’s) for festivals, religious and social functions. Besides, being breeding season of the animals. “Actually, there is lack of proper guidance to the milk producers as they did not categories there livestock for seminization properly and prefer to seminize all the cattle’s one time” said Dr. Shadab an expert with animal husbandry. He suggested that if out of ten cattle’s, three are siminized in the month of April, and other three or four after a gap of few months and another three or four after a gap of some more months the flow of milk will remain in continuity. He added that this year due to drought and forest fires across the hilly areas caused damaged to food stuff of live stock which lead in acute shortage of milk and milk by products as well.
“It not for the first time shortage is being witnessed and suffered but for last couple of years situation is worsen and we are helpless as supply of milk to our shop comes one-fourth to one-fifth against the supply comes to us regularly for remaining months” said a sales man of city’s number one milk shop at Lakhdata Bazar. He said that supply of milk is expected to increase after the couple of days as the major festivals are concluding by August 15th. Now, the question arises that either government remained unable to identify the problem for the last twenty years or if identified then remained unable to sort it out. But in both the conditions government has shown its lame and timid attitude in taking steps to provide adequate facilities to common people of Jammu by providing them alternative in procuring the quantity they needed during shortage period. Strengthening of cooperatives remains still a distant dream for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives despite funds, guideline along with three tire system methodology for upgrading the system was extended by central government during the pervious coalition.
However, several measures were initiated by the Government of India to increase the productivity of livestock, which resulted in significant increase in the milk production to the level of 81.0 million tonnes at the end of 2000-01, as compared to 17.00 million tonnes in 1950-51. India has become the largest producer of milk in the World. The milk production target during 2001-02 was 84.6 million tonnes. The per capita availability of milk has increased to 226 g per day during 2001-02 from 200 g per day in 1996-97. Going by these figures the state government could prove its efforts a success by concentrating over the pathetic conditions of cooperatives besides involving youth for establishing new resources by opening their venture at small scales.
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