Chandipur village in Maguraghona union, about 35 kilometres from the seat of Dumuria upazila in Khulna, and Jeyala village next to it in Tala upazila of Satkhira are known locally as the milk villages. Almost every house in the two villages now keeps a cow. By the villagers' own count, 160 households in Jeyala have about 1,689 cows and 40 households in Chandipur about 410, and together the two villages produce an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 litres of milk a day.

Cow keeping was once largely confined to the Ghosh families here. Because selling milk pays well, more than 200 households are now in the business, and many families in the neighbouring villages of Nalta, Atharoi and Arnagar are following. Villagers say a cow can be kept in a small yard, the risk is comparatively low, and in many cases it is more profitable than growing rice, wheat or jute. Some homes keep five to 10 cows; a few of the larger farms keep 20 to 40.

Ripon Ghosh of Chandipur has kept exotic-breed cows for a dozen years. His six cows give 25 to 30 litres a day; at Tk 45 a litre that earns him about Tk 35,000 a month, part of which goes on feed and the rest keeps a household of four. Bikram Ghosh of Jeyala and his father have 45 exotic-breed cows producing 250 to 300 litres a day, and Sunil Ghosh in the same village has run his household on the milk of 10 cows for nine years.

Prabir Ghosh and Suchitra Rani Ghosh of Jeyala said most homes once kept local-breed cows and now keep improved breeds, which give between seven and 20 litres a day depending on size and breed. Farmers milk twice, at dawn and in the afternoon, and carry the milk to Milk Vita collection centres at Binerpota in Satkhira and at Shahapur, Thukra and Daulatpur in Dumuria. An Akij Dairy collection centre stands between the two villages and BRAC Dairy has one at Atharomile bazar in Dumuria; the rest of the milk goes to sweet shops and households in Khulna and Satkhira.

The cows earn more than milk. Dung is money too: some make dung cakes, others have installed biogas stoves. Debi Rani Ghosh of Chandipur said her household makes 30 to 45 dung cakes a day and each sells for Tk 3 to Tk 3.50, which both fuels the kitchen and adds to the income. Milk money has put brick walls on many houses and brought in televisions, refrigerators and fans; some families have bought a motorcycle.

The uncertainty has not gone, though. For all that milk there is no adequate way to keep it, so it is sometimes sold cheap and risks spoiling when no buyer turns up. Farmers Asit Kumar Ghosh and Sadananda Ghosh said Milk Vita stops buying one day a week and BRAC Dairy two days, and on those days they must let the sweet shops have the milk at a lower price. Easy-term bank loans to buy a cow or expand a shed are not available either, they said. Subir Ghosh, president of the Chandipur Milk Producers' Co-operative Society Ltd, said the herd in the two villages could grow further with government support and patronage.

Bhabatosh Ghosh and Sukanta Ghosh said neither village has a paved road, so no large vehicle can enter: milk goes out and cattle feed comes in on nasimons, vans and small pickups, and the monsoon makes it worse. Farmers also complain that a livestock officer or veterinarian is rarely to be found when a cow falls ill with anthrax, black quarter, foot-and-mouth disease, haemorrhagic septicaemia or worms. Dr Ashraful Alam, the Dumuria upazila livestock officer, said the department provides vaccines against contagious disease and treatment, and has given farmers free medicine and dewormer, floor mats, mosquito nets and grass-cutting machines under various projects, but that limited supplies and a shortage of staff mean not every medicine can be given free.

Farmers say the possibility would be larger still with a way to store the milk, credit on easy terms, regular livestock services and better roads. Mohammad Ali Asgar Lobi, the member of parliament for Khulna-5 (Dumuria-Phultala), said residents of the two villages would be given every kind of support for keeping improved-breed cows, and that the earthen and semi-paved village roads would be metalled so the milk can reach the market easily.

The report is by Samakal's Dumuria correspondent; photograph by Arif Hazra.

Source: samakal